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SERMONS 



BY 



BISHOP MATTHEW SIMPSON 



OF THE 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 



EDITED FROM SHORT-HAND REPORTS 

GEOKGE K. CKOOKS, D.D. 






NEW YORK 
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 

1885 



,85584 



W CONGRESS 



Copyright, 1885, by Harper & Brothers. 



All rights reserved. 



EDITOR'S PREFACE. 



The sermons in this volume are not closet sermons ; as far 
as I know they were never, two of them excepted, commit- 
ted to writing by their author. Nearly all were secured for 
reading by my own reporter at the time I was engaged in 
editing the Methodist. They have, therefore, the marks of 
extemporaneous discourse. They are fresh, vigorous, and 
have, as one may say, the breeziness of the open air. They 
make no pretensions to polish of diction ; the form of speech, 
however, is simple and natural, but always intense. It has 
been my aim to preserve, in the reproduction, the intensity 
which was so marked a feature of their delivery. Many of 
the repetitions which are appropriate to extemporaneous 
preaching have been removed; some still remain, but, it is 
believed, not to such an extent as to mar the reader's enjoy- 
ment. The work of revision has been done with a free hand, 
but, I trust, with good judgment. Most of the shorthand re- 
ports were originally put into print with the utmost possible 
speed. In their first form they hardly did the eloquent bishop 
justice. Though often asked to do so, he himself shrank 
from the task of revising the reports for publication in a vol- 
ume ; indeed, his many engagements as an executive officer 
of the Church gave him little leisure for writing or editing. 

There are famous preachers who occupy one position for a 
series of years, and who, coming from their libraries on sue- 



v j EDITOR'S PREFACE. 

cessive Sundays, draw to the delivery of their carefully elab- 
orated discourses wide circles of hearers. Eepresentativcs 
from all parts of a nation may pass in and out of their church 
doors. Bishop Simpson was not one of these. His diocese 
embraced the whole field of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
He was required by his official obligations to traverse that 
field incessantly; not always without haste, but always with- 
out rest. One month his place of duty might be Maine and 
the next California, and the same or the following year he 
might be speaking, with such help as he needed from an in- 
terpreter, to the Methodists of Germany and Sweden. 

We must conceive of him, therefore, as a great evangelist, 
who is continuously addressing new congregations. Wher- 
ever he goes and his name is announced the fame of his power 
draws an expectant multitude. His themes are the chief 
themes of Christ's gospel. Eternity and time, God and man, 
sin and holiness, heaven and hell — with these his mind and 
heart are full. He has neither time nor inclination for that 
attenuated species of discourse which draws out thought to 
its slenderest filaments, till it has become almost impercepti- 
ble to the mind's eye. His thoughts are drawn from the sur- 
face of his subject as it is stated in the Bible ; his appeals are 
to the primary human feelings, especially to the domestic and 
social affections. His -incisive tenor voice has a sympathetic 
quality which in a very short time finds its way to the sources 
of emotion. As he proceeds his stooping shoulders become 
erect; his tall, spare form puts on a grace which in repose 
does not belong to it ; the congregation is consciously before 
him, but he is rapt in vision. The whole nature is wrought 
to its utmost tension, but every movement is self-restrained. 
The hand and arm sway in gesture harmoniously with his 
thought and feeling, but never come down with ringing em- 
phasis. The eye, which lias become glassy with moisture, 



EDITOR'S PREFACE. v ii 

seems to be looking beyond mortal horizons. Evidently the 
invisible world is more real to the preacher than the world 
visible; and with tenderest pathos he is aiming to make it 
real to the multitudes before him. Among them there is a 
contagion of sympathy; tears, ejaculations, half -suppressed 
sobs, tell of the overmastering power that sways them. All 
the while the clear, penetrating voice preserves its firmness ; 
it never breaks up ; it never for an instant falters. Master 
of himself while subduing others, the preacher holds on his 
way, till a closing appeal for instant action upon the questions 
of destiny releases his hearers from the spell which had been 
wrought upon them. 

The discourses contained in this volume will show that the 
means used for the production of such extraordinary effects 
were legitimate. A great, earnest, loving soul speaks in them 
all. Their language is the language of absolute conviction. 
The preacher believes God's truth without the shadow of a 
mental reservation, and in this faith delivers his testimony. 

Dkew TnEOL. Sem., March 19, 1885. 



CONTENTS. 



SERMON TAGE 

I. LIVING FOR CHRIST. (Phil. i. 21) 3 

II. THE ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY. (1 Tim. i. 5*) . . 19 

III. OUR TIMES IN GOD'S HAND. (Psalm xxxi. 15) 39 

IV. THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. (Acts xx. 24) 57 

V. CHRISTIAN UNITY. (John xvii. 22) 81 

VI. THE GOSPEL THE POWER OF GOD. (Romans i. 1G) 97 
VII. CHRIST'S WORDS THE LIFE OF METHODISM. 

(John vi. 63) 115 

VIII. THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. (1 Cor. xv. 20). . . 143 
IX. ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. (Acts vi. 

5, and xi. 24) 159 

X. THE GREAT COMMISSION. (Matthew xxviii. 18-20) . . 175 

XI. THE VICTORY OF FAITH. (1 John v. 4) 193 

XII. THE GLORY OF GOD'S HOUSE. (Isaiah lx. 7) 209 

XIII. THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. (2 Cor. iv. 18). . . 227 

XIV. GLORYING IN THE CROSS. (Gal. vi. 14) 241 

XV. OUR TRUE REJOICING. (Luke x. 20) 257 

XVI. THE CHURCH A PLACE OF SAFETY AND PRAISE. 

(Isaiah lx. 18) 279 



x CONTENTS. 

SERMON PAGE 

XVII. WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST ? (Matt, xxii. 42) 295 

XVIII. GOD'S REIGN OVER THE EARTH. (Ps. xcvii. 1, 2). . 315 

XIX. THE RESURRECTION. (Job xiv. 14) 331 

XX. THE EFFECT ON THE HUMAN MIND OF THE 
MANIFESTATION OF GOD'S GLORY. (Exodus xxiii. 

18-20) 347 

XXL BE NOT DISCOURAGED. (Isaiah xlii. 4) 371 

XXII. THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY. (Revelation xix. 10) .. . 387 

XXIII. THE CONTEST FOR ETERNAL LIFE. (Heb.xii. 1,2) 405 

XXIV. STEPHEN'S LIFE AND VISION. (Acts viii. 2) 421 

XXV. POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE. (Hebrews xi. 4) . . . . 439 



I. 



fining fur Cfmst 



LIYING FOE CHEIST. 

"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." — Phil. i. 21. 

The words selected present the thought of the great apos- 
tle to the Gentiles in view of his afflictions, his imprison- 
ment, the work which God had assigned to him, and his faith 
in a glorious immortality. He states that his mind was not 
fully decided what was best — whether lie should live or 
whether he should die. For he adds, "If I live in the flesh, 
this is the fruit of my labor" — that is, if he were to live, 
he must go on preaching, he must have persecution, bonds, 
and imprisonment; and the fruit of his labor must be toil 
and sorrow and suffering. "Yet what I shall choose I wot 
not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to de- 
part, and to be with Christ ; which is far better : Neverthe- 
less, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you." Thus we 
find him, in view of impending death, scarcely knowing him- 
self what was best — having, in his heart, rather a desire to go ; 
in his judgment, a conviction that it was better for those 
about him that he should stay; and thus, almost equally 
balanced, he was perfectly willing either to live or to die. 
This is the true Christian frame of mind, and the subject has 
been selected that we may take a just estimate of human life, 
its mission, and the feelings with which each one of us should 
regard its duties, responsibilities, and end. 

The words are certainly very singular : " For to me to live 
is Christ." How is it that " to live is Christ ?" If the great 
apostle could say these words, may you and I? "Was the 
apostle's life to represent Christ ? Was he, in some sense, to 
be a Christ on earth? If so, may you and I, in our lives, rep- 
resent Christ? May we be to the world, in some sense, a 
Christ ? Is it possible for us to have such a grand conception 
of life — its mission, its duties, its responsibilities ? 



4 SERMONS. 

The Christian's life may be said to be of Christ in this — 
that it is purchased through his death. We live because 
Christ died ; aud hence, the life which we live is not of our- 
selves, but is through Christ and of Christ. In this view, 
for us to live is to testify to the goodness, the grace, and the 
mercy of Christ. We have sinned, and we deserve to die. 
'Not one of us is here because of his merit or of his deserts. 
Every one of us has wrought such folly and wickedness that 
he deserves to have died. Take the past few days only, or 
the past few months, and leave out of sight all the rest of 
our lives, and what wickedness, infirmity, folly, and wrong 
have characterized our actions or have mingled with our 
thoughts? That we live is an indication of the mercy, con- 
descension, and compassion of Christ. In this sense, in living 
we show forth his glory. 

But it may be said, is not this true of the wicked as well as 
of the good. I answer, all alike live through Christ. " In 
the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," was the 
warning given to man. Yery possibly but for the proffered 
atonement the race had been extinguished. God hath given 
us a life probation through Christ, and the wickedest man on 
earth, as well as the holiest, in this sense, lives through him. 
In this view, what are the obligations under which we are 
laid? The profane man receives the breath which he ex- 
pends in profanity because of Christ's death and mediation. 
The man who employs his time in wickedness, who is plan- 
ning deceit, fraud, and iniquity, is spending the strength, 
time, power, intellect, and opportunities which he receives 
through the mediation of Christ ; for he is our intercessor. 
The sword of justice is suspended over our heads; the voice 
has gone forth, " Cut him down ; why cumbereth he the 
ground?" and yet, before the throne the great Mediator 
pleads : " Spare him yet a little longer. Bear with him a lit- 
tle further. Let there be other exhibitions of grace mani- 
fested to him. Let him be borne with, visited by the Holy 
Spirit, entreated, wooed, that he may turn to Christ and 
live." The mercies of the past and mercies of to-day are 
evidences of Christ's mediation in our behalf, and of his de- 
sire that we should live henceforth to his honor and glory. 



LIVING FOR CHRIST. 5 

" But," it is said by some one, " surely lie cannot love the 
ungodly so much." I answer, if he did not love the ungodly, 
you and I would have no hope of salvation. It was in our 
sins he loved us, and " we love him because he first loved us." 
The depth of his love is set forth in his inimitable last prayer : 
" That the world may know that thou hast loved them as 
thou hast loved me." The great All -Father, bending from 
his throne, loved us as he loves his own Son — he loves the 
world, the whole world, the whole human family. Not that 
he loves our folly, or our guilt ; not that he loves our weak- 
ness, or our sins; but he loves us — yearns to save us from 
our sins, and to save us with an eternal salvation. So that 
our living may be said to be of Christ. This applies to all 
of us. Whether we are Christian believers, or whether we 
have never named the name of Christ, all are equally under 
obligation to the Saviour for his amazing mercy in prolong- 
ing life. 

There is a sense, however, in which the Christian may be 
said to show forth Christ in his life, which will not thus ap- 
ply to all the world. " For to us to live is Christ," further sig- 
nifies that, in living, we receive into our hearts the spirit of 
Christ. "If any man have not the spirit of Christ," the 
apostle says, " he is none of his." If we belong to Christ we 
have the spirit of Christ — that is, we have a mind like to 
his mind. Was he amiable ? So are we. Was he meek? So 
are we. Was he patient? So are we. Could he bear with 
the perversity of others? So can we. Could he bear to be 
reproached without becoming angry? So can we. Was he 
long-suffering? So are we. Could he endure persecutions 
unmoved ? So can we — that is, if we are Christ's ; for all true 
Christians have in them the mind which was in him. It is 
true, with this mind, we have temptations, and we have pecu- 
liarities of disposition which those temptations influence ; we 
are liable to be thrown off our guard ; we need constant 
watchfulness ; but, just so far as we are Christ's, we have the 
mind that was in Christ. Again, "for to us to live is Christ," 
in this — that we show to the world how Christ would live, 
how Christ would labor and toil and suffer and act, were he 



6 SERMONS. 

in our place. Thus we show to the world that we are 
his. "We stand up before the world, to point out to the 
world what is Christ-like; what are Christ's dispositions as 
manifested to that world. If, then, you are set in this world 
to show to all around you how Christ would have lived, in 
what a responsible place has Christ put you ! "What a vast 
responsibility rests upon you if you stand to represent him 
in your temper, words, and actions ! Do you say that this is 
making the Christian so united to Christ that it seems to be a 
perfect oneness ? I answer, that is just what the Bible prom 
ises; that is just what the Saviour prays for — "that they 
all may be one ; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that 
they also may be one in us" — one with Christ. 

But, again, there is another view, and that is a personal in- 
dwelling, a personal presence of Christ in the heart. The 
apostle speaks of this when he says : " Christ in you, the hope 
of glory." Christ, by his personal presence, dwells in every 
Christian ; and the personal presence of Christ with us is that 
which gives us a strong hope of glory. If you look into your 
own hearts, and ask why you hope for immortality, you have 
no ground, in yourself. You are full of imperfection, you 
are mistaking your way and wandering; you have no claim 
for anything you have in yourself to a glorious immortality ; 
but if Christ be in you, then, through him, you have hope. 
Christ will live on ; you will live on with Christ's life. If 
Christ be in you, you can overcome death and the grave, for 
he overcame death and the grave. He is a conqueror. He 
has all power in heaven and in earth, and if he be in you, he 
can bear you aloft out of the midst of dangers and above all 
enemies. If Christ be in you, he can bear you clear to the 
throne of God. And therein is the hope of glory — Christ in 
you. Now, if Christ be in our hearts, if his spiritual pres- 
ence be with us, there must be some sense in which that pres- 
ence will be manifest; and the life which we live will not be 
of ourselves, but by the faith of the Son of God. That is, 
the Christian will have a joint life — his own spirit, the di- 
vine Spirit ; and just as his own spirit can control his thoughts 
and purposes and movements, so, if Christ be ever present, 



LIVING FOR CHRIST. f 

he also can control those same faculties of the heart and 
mind and will ; and as Christ is stronger than we are, he can 
overrule all to his own glory. And if we can take in the 
great thought that Christ dwells in us, can we have any hesi- 
tation as to his ability to direct our way \ Is there any great 
difficulty in our doing right, in our conquering what is 
wrong? We may be weak; Christ is strong. We may be 
ignorant ; Christ is our wisdom. We are helpless ; Christ is 
almighty, and all that w T e need is his perpetual presence, his 
strength, his w T isdom ; and this will assure our glory. If 
Christ be in us, will not that life of Christ shine out of us ? 
Will there not be a. change in the character? Is it unreas- 
onable to say : " Old things are passed away ; behold, all 
things are become new ?" If Christ be in us, he can mould 
our characters ! he can change the current of our thoughts ! 
he can wield these powers for the advancement of his own 
kingdom ! he can make out of us instruments for the accom- 
plishment of great good ! In all these significations, I think, 
for to us to live is Christ. 

I think we may proceed still further, and say that, in a 
modified sense, every one of us stands in the relation of 
Christ to society. I say, in a modified sense. Have you 
ever marked the apostle's language, " Now then, we are am- 
bassadors for Christ ; we pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye 
reconciled to God ?" That is, the apostle was standing in 
Christ's stead; was talking Christ's words; was pleading as 
though Christ did plead. Some of you, young women, know 
what it is to call upon friends to bear your mother's kindly 
regards, to say for her what she would say were she there ; 
you go to represent your mother. You know what it is, 
young men, thus to represent some society; to de that com- 
pany, in that matter, before the world ; you are selected of- 
fice-bearers. Now, Christ places us in this position. We are 
in Christ's stead. We stand before the world to exhibit 
Christ's loveliness ; to do Christ's work ; to live Christ's life 
on and on. He has gone up to heaven. He sends his Spirit 
into the world. The Spirit dwells in Christian hearts, and 
works out through Christian agencies to accomplish the good 



8 SERMONS. 

that is accomplished. It is true the Spirit "works on the 
hearts of the children of disobedience ; but it is to convince 
them of righteousness and of judgment to come. The Spirit 
works through the hearts, through the lips, through the 
hands, through the minds, of Christian men and women in 
accomplishing the good that is accomplished in the world. 
Here is a reform society, a society to care for the poor, for 
drunkards and lunatics, for the disabled, for the aged — that 
is doing Christ's work; but the work is done through Chris- 
tian men and women. They are carrying out Christ's plans. 
And it is because Christ lived that these agencies live and 
nourish. And while we are doing this, it is Christ that is 
working in us to will and to do for his own glory; and we 
work amid the world in Christ's stead, and stand before the 
world to represent Christ's person. 

Sometimes I think Christians are a little confused on this 
point, because they say : " Why, Christ's mission was to die for 
sin, to make an atonement." That, I admit, was the great end 
for which he came into the world ; but Christ's vicarious mis- 
sion was ended when he died. He arose from the grave ; he 
had made an atonement for the sins of mankind, he had risen 
again for our justification, though he had not yet ascended to 
send forth the Holy Spirit. And now, suppose that, after his 
death, Christ had risen from the grave and had never as- 
cended to heaven, what would have been his mission ? Not 
to die for sin ; that was over ; but to be a teacher and a la- 
borer — to help every living person to become better, to be- 
come purer, to become happier; that would have been all 
Christ could have lived for. He would have lived to whisper 
down the winds, and step gently on the waves and bid them 
be still ; to give bread to the hungry ; to give eyesight to the 
blind ; to take the lame by the hand ; to go to the couch of 
sickness and gently raise up the sufferer; to step into the 
house and say, "Peace be unto this house ;" to take the little 
ones in his arms ; to soothe old age ; to stand by the bedside 
of the dying, and sweetly point out the. way to everlasting 
life. Oh ! what would Christ have been could he have 
lived right on in this world, walking over its hills, passing 



LIVING FOR CHRIST. 9 

through its valleys, going into its crowded markets, sitting 
down by the wayside, by the well, to meet the lonely one who 
came to draw water? What would Christ's mission have 
been, but simply a life of doing good, an exemplification of 
all that is beautiful and holy, and a putting forth of all possi- 
ble efforts to ameliorate the condition of humanity? You 
and I are placed in this world to carry out Christ's great 
purposes. And hence "to us to live is Christ;" to be like 
Christ — nay, I speak it with reverence — to be Christ. " For to 
me to live is Christ." You are to be Christ to your fellow- 
men in this sense : you are anointed of God for this mission, 
and you are to perform it. Why is it that superior intellect 
is given you ? To teach, to shed light. Why are large means 
given you? To afford comfort, joy, consolation. Why is 
superior position given you, but to help some one up? So- 
ciety may be likened to men ascending a pyramid. They who 
have risen a step higher should stoop down and take by the 
hand those who are a little lower, pointing to the highest sum- 
mit, as each one struggles onward. I shall never forget the 
feelings I had once when climbing one of the pyramids of 
Egypt. When half way up, my strength failing, I feared I 
should never be able to reach the summit or get back again ; 
I well remember the help given, by Arab hands, drawing me 
on farther, and the step I could not quite make myself, be- 
cause too great for my wearied frame — the little help given 
me, sometimes more and sometimes less — enabled me to go up, 
step by step, step by step, until, at last, I reached the top, and 
breathed the pure air, and had a grand lookout from that 
lofty height. And so in life's journey, we are climbing. 
We are feeble. Every one of us, now and then, needs a little 
help, and if we have risen a step higher than some other, let 
us reach down for our brother's hand and help him to stand 
beside us ; and thus, joined hand in hand, we shall go on 
conquering, step by step, until the glorious eminence shall be 
gained. Ah ! how many need help in this world — poor, af- 
flicted ones; poor, sorrowing ones; poor, tempted ones; who 
have been overcome ; who have been struggling, not quite 
able to get up the step ; trying, falling ; trying, failing ; try- 



10 SERMONS. 

ing, desponding ; trying, almost despairing. Oh ! give such 
an one help, a little kindly aid, and the step may be taken, 
and another step may then be taken, and, instead of dying in 
wretchedness at the base, he may, by a brother's hand, be 
raised to safety, and, finally, to glory. Your mission is to be 
Christ to such, to take such by the hand. " For to you to 
live is Christ." 

Oh ! what a glorious privilege it is to be Christ to the 
fallen, to save the vicious, to come to the rescue ! There are 
some who are perishing in the waves. You have the life- 
boat — get it out and man it : they are struggling ; you have 
the plank — throw it in : they are sinking ; you are near them 
— reach out your hand and save them. Then are you Christ 
just to that extent; and "for to you to live is Christ." Was 
not this the apostle's feeling ? Christ, to do good, spared not 
himself; he hungered, he thirsted, he prayed all night on the 
mountain-top. "When the disciples were in jeopardy, he was 
down upon the sea and in the storm. Not his own interests 
did he care for, but the interests of others. The apostle, I 
say, was like Christ in this : he cared not for himself. See 
how he suffered ! It was not because he was very old that 
he was careless about dying. It was not because he was free 
from the imperfections of youth or middle age that life had 
no attractions for him. He was a very young man when 
Stephen died ; for it is said that they laid their garments at 
the feet of a young man named Saul. He was a young man 
when Christ met him near the gate of Damascus, and took 
him captive. He had been about thirty years preaching; he 
was yet in middle life — strong, vigorous, able to visit the 
churches, to go through the world from place to place, preach- 
ing Jesus wherever he went. It was not because his life was 
worn out, his energies gone, that he was willing to die. While 
still in the prime of life, and yet preferring to be with Christ 
in heaven, he was willing to live as Christ — to he Christ in 
the world. 

It may be said that this presents a very different view of 
human life from that which we generally cherish. So be it. 
Is it not the apostolic view, and is it not that which gives 



LIVING FOR CHRIST. H 

grandeur to humanity, to take in the conception that we are 
not in this world for ourselves ? Do you not hear the apostle 
crying out : " Ye are not your own : ye are bought with a 
price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your 
spirit, which are God's"? You are not your own; you are 
Christ's. Be Christs in the world. Do I not hear him cry- 
ing out: "None of us liveth unto himself, and no man dieth 
unto himself: whether we liye, we live unto the Lord; and 
whether we die, we die unto the Lord: so then, whether 
we live or die, we are the Lord's"? Do we not hear Jesus 
saying in his last prayer: " As thou hast sent me into the 
world, even so also I have sent them into the world " ? Chris- 
tian man, Christian woman, you have been as much sent of 
God into the world as Christ was sent into the world. As he 
was sent into the world on a mission of mercy, so you have 
been sent into the world on a mission of mercy. As he was 
sent to raise the world nearer to heaven, so you have been 
sent ; and your mission must be a mission of mercy and love. 
But I look at society and see the multitudes sent from God 
here to be angels, and oh ! how many of them have turned to 
be demons ! Sent of God to bless the world, how many come 
to curse the world ! Sent of God to extend smiling peace, 
and they spread frowns and anguish in the midst of God's 
works ! Oh ! what would this earth be if every human being 
was to feel the grandeur of his mission, and would set out at 
once and forever to work simply the works of God. 

I think I hear some of my audience saying : " We would 
be only too willing to engage in such work as this. We 
would like to be as Christ in the world. But, we are so weak, 
how can we represent the Master?" My friends, Christ has 
made you just as you are. He has given you just the stat- 
ure, and the temperament, and the circumstances, and the 
place, and the opportunities you have, and he only re- 
quires you, under these circumstances, to be like him. If you 
are prostrated by illness, and never again can be permitted to 
set foot out of doors, he only requires you to be like Christ 
sitting in your chamber or lying on your bed. If you suf- 
fer, you are to be like Christ in suffering — to be meek and 



12 SERMONS. 

lamblike; and little do you know how much you may ac- 
complish even in sorrow and suffering. The dairyman's 
daughter, sitting in her arm-chair; the poor girl who had 
been at service — when heart and flesh were failing, and she 
was sinking in consumption — talked so sweetly of Jesus and 
of heaven that the minister visiting her wrote her words down, 
and published them in the tract known as " The Dairyman's 
Daughter." To-day there are in heaven multiplied thousands 
who were awakened and converted through the words of 
that poor servant-girl, speaking of Jesus in her dying-room. 
Little thought she when dying that the world would care for 
her words, that she could do anything ; but Jesus saw she was 
doing what she could. She was Christ in her position — that 
is, in the attitude of Christ to others. 

And now, what are your circumstances? where are you? 
how situated? among whom do you associate? with whom 
have you any influence? on whose heart may your words 
drop? who may see your spirit? Just such as God designs 
you to influence, and to be to them instead of Christ, be- 
seeching them to bo reconciled to God ; and your work is in 
your sphere just where you are. You may say : u If I could 
preach, then I would be as Christ. If I could talk eloquently, 
if I had millions to give, if I could do some great thing, I 
would." Ah ! not the great events merely move the world ; 
the smaller do also. It was the little Israelite maid who 
directed Eaaman, the Syrian prince, to the prophet. The 
sphere of usefulness for any of us is marked out by the op- 
portunities God has given us. But others may say again: 
"If I should try, I may fail." I ask, how do you know? 
Can't you do something more for Christ than you have done? 
Now, there is this peculiarity in trying to be Christ to some 
one : wherever a man attempts to be in the stead of Christ 
to his fellow-men, Christ draws near to him, joins himself 
to him, and gives him additional power. "Lo, I am with you 
always," were the words of Jesus. That promise was not a 
promise to be with the Christian in indolence and negligence 
and ease, but he said: "Go into all the world. Lo, I am 
with you." It is when we are going that Jesus joins the 



LIVING FOE CHRIST. 13 

march ; it is when we are working that Jesus adds the power ; 
it is when we are attempting something for Christ that Christ 
draws near. Look at the history of the good works done 
for our race. They have been begun by the comparatively 
feeble — but, just as men went, somehow Christ opened the 
door. Look at the "Life of Faith," by Miiller. Bead his 
story of the Orphan House in Bristol. See how he began 
without money to gather two or three orphan children to- 
gether, and now see how God sends him bread as though the 
windows of heaven were open, and he has hundreds and 
hundreds of orphan children around him ; how he went out 
to do good, and Christ went with him. He attempted to 
work, and Christ worked through him ; he attempted to bless 
the world, and Christ sent a blessing down. Look out wher- 
ever you go. Who started the Sunday-school, or the ragged- 
schools, and who gave out the words of mercy ? There never 
seems to be a fairly open door until the work starts. 

My object in making these illustrations is this : when you 
have taken it in your heart to do a good work for society, do 
not be afraid that you will not succeed. If you think Christ 
would do it if he were here upon earth, do you do it. Go 
forward in Christ's name. Be sure the work is one that he 
would approve, and then, in Christ's strength, go forward. 
Just in proportion as yon attempt to work for Christ will he 
approve your work, and you will grow stronger and stronger. 
And now, if there is one here this morning who is not a 
Christian, a struggling man who has tried an hundred times 
to conquer himself, and failed ; if there is one here who feels 
that it is almost impossible for him to be a Christian because 
of his temptations, let me say to you, my friend, while you 
are trying to conquer your own heart, set about some work 
of mercy for others. It will do you good. If you will se- 
lect some poor miserable wretch w T ho ought to be saved, and 
undertake his salvation, while attempting to save him, God 
will save you. Just try to do good to some one else, and you 
will find that while you are trying to be Christ to him, Christ 
draws near to your own heart. 

I have no time to dwell upon the latter part of this subject 



14 SERMONS. 

— " to die is gain." That might befit another discussion. 
What I aim at is this : " To live is Christ ;" to be Christ in 
the world, to be like Christ, to be of Christ, to be in Christ's 
stead, to show Christ's presence, to do Christ's work. This 
is the great object of life ; and often I think I would be glad 
to live on, and on, and on, and on — to live for the world's 
sake, to live for my friends' sake, to live for the purpose of 
doing a little more good in the world ; but if God sees fit to 
say we have stood in Christ's stead long enough, come up 
higher, there will be no anxiety, no fear. We are willing to 
depart and be with Christ if we are joined to him, indis- 
solubly in body and soul; and the great secret of not being- 
afraid to die is, to have Christ in the heart, and to be work- 
ing for him. And if we live for him, we know that we 
shall live with him hereafter. Death loses its terrors; we 
shall be willing to go hence. Care, anxiety, sin, suffering, we 
must have here, and we shall be willing to be released from 
them — to depart. The word " depart " signifies to set out, to 
sail, to let go. It is as if a vessel were fastened to the dock ; 
the cable is firmly bound to the shore. Just loose the cable, 
unfurl the sails, set the vessel free ; the winds are bearing it 
out into the open sea. Here we are now, working, toiling, 
but, if God will let the cable unloose, we shall sail out into 
the wide sea of eternity. 

It is better to be with Christ, to be with angels, to be with 
God. And yet, I fancy sometimes that when we have passed 
away from earth, it will not be to a life of indolence, of list- 
lessness, a life in which we shall think only of ourselves. We 
think too much of ourselves and our emotions in religion. 
If we are like Christ we are not thinking of ourselves, but of 
others. The great Father yearns from heaven over all, and 
the great Saviour died for all, and the Holy Spirit comes 
down to visit all, and the angels are sent to be ministering 
spirits to all. And if you and I get to heaven we shall get 
into a wider sphere of work. Our bodies will need no sleep, 
no rest. Our joy will be in working, in knowing, in doing, 
in being like the great God, in going from Jesus to the far 
extremities of the universe to bear some message, to help 



LIVING FOB CHKIST. 15 

some lowly one, to assist some climber, to drop some smile. 
My thoughts of loved ones have changed to some extent in 
the years that are passing. I used to think more about 
personal enjoyment in heaven. I have no doubt there is all 
of that; but God hath set the world in motion, and every 
particle of matter exerts an influence upon the rest, the whole 
being bound together; and it seems to me that in the great 
spiritual universe we shall be employed in dispensing light 
and knowledge and glory, forever and ever. And living here 
as Christ, we live there as Christ. He will call us to his 
throne, will give us something of his work ; we shall burn 
with his Spirit ; we shall be messengers of light, possibly, to 
the universe beyond. 

And now, dear friends, will you set out to be like Christ ? 
"Will you try ? Will you try ? I would fain, if I could, help 
some one this morning. I am thankful God has helped me 
to climb up a few steps. I have been going up a little — 
faith, hope, charity — step by step, degree by degree — a little 
purer air than when I first set out — a little stronger in Christ, 
a little more victory over temptation, a little clearer view of 
the future. I can see a little farther towards the promised 
land. I sometimes have visions of the King in his beauty, 
and the land that is very far off, and sometimes the curtain 
seems to grow very thin before me. Oh ! let me take you 
by the hand. Come with me. Try Christ's power. Try 
Christ's grace to overcome your temptations, and set out with 
me this morning in trying to do good. Oh ! could I persuade 
this audience to go from church this morning to do more 
than ever, my heart would be glad. I know that while I 
have been talking, Christ's Spirit has been with you. You 
have been thinking of some one you might help, some plans 
of mercy, some friends you ought to invite to Christ. Come 
out and work for him. I want to enlist you in this great ser- 
vice; and I want not only church-members, but all of you. 
Oh ! come, young men, who never have sought Christ, and 
begin to work with me to make this world better. It is a 
great and glorious work. I beg you to come, in his name, 
and give yourselves to him. Just at the re-opening of this 



1(5 SERMONS. 

church, consecrate yourselves to him. O ye officers of the 
Church ! be holier than ever. Ye members of the Church, 
be more devoted. Ye visitors, consecrate your energies more 
fully. Ye singers of sweet song, sing more sweetly ; and all 
ye that work for the Saviour, labor more earnestly than you 
have ever done. And may you live for Christ on earth, and 
enjoy his presence in glory ! 



II. 

CjfB dMttnwtfi nf CJmstintritij. 



THE ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

"Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and 
of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned." — 1 Tim. i. 5. 

It is sometimes both interesting and profitable to take an 
interior view of the working of any system which challenges 
the attention of thoughtful men. The Christian Church has 
an external and an internal system. As it appears to the 
world, it is an association of men bound together by a precise 
creed, adopting certain usages which lead to more intimate 
communion, and seeking in some form to spread itself over 
the earth. When looked at as an external organization, men 
sometimes fancy it is seeking for worldly power; that it has 
the same motives as distinguish the governments of earth ; 
that its aim is merely aggrandizement, the personal elevation 
of those concerned, or that in some form it has a selfish ob- 
ject in view. It may be well, then, for us not only to con- 
template it externally in what it does and what it proposes to 
do, but to see what great objects the founders of it had in 
view, and what reasons they gave to those who, following 
them, endeavor to carry out their teachings and to spread 
abroad their spirit. 

The apostle Paul, knowing that in a few years at most, pos- 
sibly in a few months, he might be offered up, addresses to 
Timothy instructions with regard to his duty and the spirit 
in which he should try to advance the interests of the Chris- 
tian Church. And we shall find, in the instructions thus 
given, lessons showing what was the mind of the apostle, 
what he was seeking after, and what he desired his successors 
in all ages to seek after, in the establishment and expansion 
of the Christian Church. He says : " As I besought thee to 



20 SERMONS. 

abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou 
mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nei- 
ther give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which min- 
ister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith : 
so do. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a 
pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned : 
from which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain 
jangling; desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding 
neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm." Thus he in- 
structs him not to have his attention turned chiefly to ques- 
tions of controversy, questions merely of ceremony, or ques- 
tions connected with external associations, with genealogies, 
race, or descent, for to determine these was not the great ob- 
ject of the Church. It had a higher idea, a wider aim ; and 
then he23roceeds to set forth, in the passage we have selected, 
what that object is. The phrase, " the end of the commaud- 
ment," means here the design, the purpose for which it was 
given ; and by the phrase, " the commandment," I understand 
the whole system of revealed religion. In other words, it 
might be said, Now, the whole object of God's revelation to 
man is to promote charity out of a pure heart, of a good con- 
science, and of faith unfeigned. Christianity has no external 
objects as far as its own aggrandizement is concerned ; it 
seeks not to build up itself at the expense of others; there 
is no personal motive that ought to influence those who are 
engaged in its service. Its aim is to bless the world, to make 
mankind happier, to spread abroad purity of heart and recti- 
tude of conduct, and to give men fellowship with the great 
God who made the world. This is the work of the Chris- 
tian Church. And, taking the passage in this view, I ask 
your attention, then, to the declaration of the apostle — that 
the Christian Church is established on earth as a system 
for the spreading abroad of charity among all men and 
the blessing of mankind in every possible form, and that, 
so far as the individual is concerned, the steps in this proc- 
ess are three — a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith 
unfeigned. 
Proceeding, then, to general views, let me make a prelimi- 



THE ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 21 

nary suggestion. It is this : When we look over the world 
and consider the men who oppose Christianity, or the men 
who do not make a profession of it, nor identify themselves 
with it, we find a difference. There are some who dislike 
it because it is a system of purity. It denounces vices which 
they love ; it enjoins practices in which they are unwilling 
to engage. They wish to follow their own appetites and 
seek their own pleasures, and hence they turn away from 
Christianity. But there is another class of higher minds 
who admire what is beautiful, who feel the outgushings 
of charity, and long to do good. Sometimes such men turn 
aside from Christianity because they say it is narrow in its 
scope ; because it seeks to force upon them some particu- 
lar creed ; and they talk about an enlarged charity that em- 
braces the whole earth. They talk of the brotherhood of man, 
and they say they would seek (and some of them honestly 
feel this) the elevation of men everywhere ; and they fancy 
they can better accomplish that great work outside of than 
within the Christian Church ; that they can see some system 
wider in its scope, higher in its aim, and more comprehensive 
in its tendencies than the Christian religion. Now, to these 
men I suggest simply this : What aim can be broader than uni- 
versal charity % If the whole purpose of the Gospel be to pro- 
mote love among men, if the word "charity" here signifies 
love in its purest and highest form, the outgushing of univer- 
sal kindness — not almsgiving, not the tendering of physical 
aid merely, but the doing all that can be done to give happi- 
ness and elevation to mankind — now, if this be the purpose 
of the Christian Church, if this be the spirit of Christianit}-, 
where can there be found anything more elevating and wider 
in its scope ? 

And let us see whether we are justified, and whether the 
apostle was justified, in claiming for the Christian religion 
this high aim and this broad sweep ; whether the tendency of 
all its teachings and of its spirit is to do good universally 
among the human family. First, then, I remark that the 
whole object of revelation was to give man higher concep- 
tions of God and such knowledge of him as would elevate 



22 SERMONS. 

human nature. The Greek mythology had in it some very 
beautiful fables. It had a wide sway over men ; it helped 
to form the Greek mind ; it threw an air of grace over 
society. Under its fostering touch poetry sounded some of 
its most beautiful notes, the orator uttered some of his most 
persuasive strains, art moved in its grand processions, and 
society, in many aspects, was lifted up. And yet there was 
in their theology that which drew them down to earth; 
their fancies of Jupiter and Venus were earthly fancies ; 
and while many of them spoke eloquently of the great 
gods, they believed that in their bosoms reigned anger, pas- 
sion, lust, and all the baser instincts which draw down human 
nature to the level of the brute ; and if such passions reigned 
in the bosoms of their gods, much more might they be ex- 
pected to rage in the bosoms of the worshippers of those 
gods. So far from their religion having in itself a holy, ele- 
vating power (though in some aspects it was elevating), it in 
part tended to degrade and destroy the higher aspirations of 
the soul. 

But the revelation given in the word of God is that of a 
pure and spotless character — a character of perfect wisdom, 
holiness, purity, justice, goodness, and love ; and just so far 
as the worship of such a being can have an effect upon the 
worshippers, it must be to develop in the mind those loftier 
tendencies which God by nature has implanted in us. "When- 
ever man comes before God, there is an image in his mind 
of perfect purity, perfect love, and perfect goodness, so that 
Christian worship differs from all other systems of worship 
in this, that there is nothing in it which feeds man's baser in- 
stincts, but everything to draw him upward, purify his heart, 
and rectify his conscience. And if the idea of God is of one 
who sends rain upon the just and the unjust, who makes his 
sun to shine upon the good and the evil, who gives seed for 
the sower and bread for the eater everywhere, who raises the 
mountain-tops in grandeur and spreads out the plains in beau- 
ty, who opens his hand and satisfies the desire of every living 
thing, the man who dwells much in the thought and society 
of such a being must gain a heart of universal goodness — 



THE ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 23 

must himself seek to spread abroad blessings over the face of 
the whole earth. In other words, he will learn to love all 
whom God loves. 

But it is said sometimes that the Old Testament Scriptures 
show us a partiality in the great Father, and that instead of 
blessing all nations, he selected a particular nation, and thus 
was the God of the Jews rather than the Gentiles, and that 
we are taught by the Old Testament exclusiveness and par- 
tiality rather than universal love. I admit that at first this 
objection seems to be plausible and well taken ; and yet, if 
we look a little further, I think we shall discover that so far 
from being well taken, it was perhaps the only method by 
which God could show clearly to man his fatherhood and love. 
For if we take the laws of nature merely, if we take God un- 
revealed in the world, distributing his blessings everywhere, 
we might say there are simply natural causes — there is no 
personal supervision, no personal love. We might, as we of- 
ten do now, remove God from our thoughts, and fancy that 
all this machinery of nature is kept in motion by law, and is 
not of God, as though law had power without personal pres- 
ence to give it force. Now that this spirit of goodness and 
of love might be manifested, it was necessary that for a time 
there should be a particular family or a particular nation 
chosen, to which God should give, as in the sight of the 
world, a special superintendence — that he might come near 
to that nation and that family, rather than to all the world, 
and that the world might see that, in so coming near, he re- 
vealed himself as a God of love. 

Consider how kind he was; how he delivered them from 
bondage! how he fed them from his own hand ! how he opened 
the windows of heaven and manna was poured out ! how he 
smote the flinty rock and streams flowed forth ! how he led 
and sustained them ! and how he made them for a time the 
pride of the whole earth ! God's fatherly care was over them, 
yet this was but for a season — to make an exhibition to the 
world, until men, being taught his goodness, should be ready 
to receive him as a universal Father. Then, in the fulness 
of time, he broke down the middle wall of partition, and 



2± SERMONS. 

came near to the race, that men, recurring to ancient times, 
might see what they could claim — that all that the Jews had 
of the divine presence they might have. Just as the cloud 
of fire by night and the pillar by day led them in their jour- 
ney, so the great All-Father is willing to lead us, and does 
lead us — unseen it may be, and yet we are guided no less 
than were the Jews; and just as from the heights of heaven 
he poured down upon them all they needed for their bodily 
wants, so now, in the fulness of time, he comes to supply all 
our wants and break to our souls the bread of life. I aver 
that in no other way can I conceive of God so fully exhibit- 
ing to the whole human family his fatherly love, as by the 
temporary expedient of selecting particular individuals and 
families of nations, that on them he might pour for a time 
the riches of his grace, that in the end he might bring all 
men together in one. So that the Old Testament dispensa- 
tion, though it may seem to be partial, teaches us the same 
idea, that its design was to promote universal love, to bring 
us nearer to God, and to make us feel that God is near us. 

Then, again, the commandment is charity, in that all the 
teachings contained in God's word breathe a spirit of univer- 
sal love. Does he exhibit himself to us? It is as a Father 
— there is no exclusiveness. He loves not one more than an- 
other. He may give temporal advantage to one rather than 
another ; he may select Jacob rather than Esau ; he may se- 
lect you for a position for which he has not selected me, but 
in his Father's heart he loves me as he loves you, and the 
humblest child is as dear to him as the proudest monarch on 
earth. There is in this respect some truth in Pope's language 
that 

" He sees with equal e)-e, as God o'er all, 
A hero perish or a sparrow fall." 

He is God over all, and his watchful care is over all his creat- 
ures. 

So, also, as to the message of mercy and the gift of ever- 
lasting life — it is unrestricted. I have no sympathy with 
any creed which teaches that God selects a part of the hu- 
man family and rejects the rest. The commandment has a 



• THE ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 25 

wider scope; it breathes a spirit of universal love to every 
human being : and as I look at my brother man every- 
where, in all lands and under all circumstances, standing 
wherever he may, I look at him as a son of God ; and just 
so far as God has sent me to preach his word to the high and 
to the low, to the rich and to the poor, to men of all ages and 
of all classes, I preach the unsearchable riches of Christ Jesus, 
and a love that embraces the whole human family in its bound- 
less affection. I cry out: " O the depth of the riches both 
of the wisdom and knowledge of God !" It is this univer- 
sality of love that gives to Christianity its heart of benev- 
olence, and prompts it to do good to every man. The duties 
enjoined flowing out of this love to God are of a universal 
character. The man who had fallen among thieves and was 
stripped of all he had became an object of affection and of 
brotherly care to the Samaritan who had power to help him. 
and Jesus said, " Go thou and do likewise," looking across all 
races and all boundaries, and teaching the doctrine of univer- 
sal philanthropy. 

Then, again, consider the commission he gave his disciples, 
" Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every 
creature," whether it be in the tropics or in the polar regions, 
whether on the continents or in the islands. As Christians, 
we never do our duty until we carry the knowledge of salva- 
tion to every human being ; and I am satisfied that the Church 
has done a vast wrong to the world in not long ago having 
carried these glad tidings to every one on earth. Just as it 
fails of accomplishing this mission, wars, tumults, tyranny, 
and discord will remain among men ; and just as it carries out 
this grand commission, it will spread peace, love, and concord 
to the very ends of the world. Now, let me ask my. friends 
who object to Christianity and long for something grander, 
where is there a system that has ever sought to carry, at all 
possible expense and all possible hazard, its truths and its 
blessings to the end of the world ? Look at the French illu- 
minati / they love society and talk about a system of social 
reorganization, but where are their missionaries % Men tell us 
sometimes of the religious of China, of India, and of Persia, 



2G SERMONS. 

but where are their missionaries going to the ends of the 
earth? Mohammedanism sent out, not its missionaries, but 
its soldiers to conquer mankind. Christianity alone seeks to 
give universal diffusion to its great truths, and for that pur- 
pose men have taken their lives in their hand and gone 
among cannibal nations. Into the depths of Africa thej 
have penetrated, and they have sought the islands of the sea 
in the spirit of adventure. Missionaries have gone into 
Greenland, and to-day every discovered island wakens in 
Christian churches a longing to send a missionary there — not 
that they may get back revenue, as merchants seek for trade, 
but that they may enlighten their fellow-men by carrying to 
them the knowledge of Jesus. Where is there a system of 
such love ? 

But am I told that Christianity, after all, is a system of 
creed merely, which does not meet the wants of man ? I ad- 
mit that sometimes Christians have talked too much of creed, 
and too little of active benevolence; I do not admit that 
Christianity ever had this defect. Christ had it not. Where 
was there a man who ever sought to alleviate suffering as 
Christ did ? lie went about always doing good. If he found 
a poor man, he spoke to him kindly ; if he found a lame man, 
he gave strength to his limbs ; if he found a blind man, he 
gave him sight ; to the deaf man, he gave the music which 
God hath spread through the earth ; the leper he made clean ; 
to the hungry, he gave bread — and wherever he went he made 
mankind happier. He who has the spirit of Christ is always 
seeking to make this world happier, and, in the train of 
Christianity, has not this been proved ? Go to unchristian 
nations, and do you find benevolent institutions, as you find 
them in Christian countries? Why have they sprung up 
here ? Why have Christian nations hospitals and asylums for 
the blind, the deaf, the insane, and the idiotic? It is because 
the spirit of their religion teaches them universal love to 
man. Go into unchristian nations, and where is the bond of 
sympathy that reigns in Christian countries? With all the 
defects which Christian people have, and I admit they are 
many (for we have an earthward side as well as a celestial 



THE ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 27 

one, and are full of infirmities), yet just so far as Christianity 
reigns in men, it gives birth to efforts to do good ; it seeks to 
fill the world with blessings ; it is crowning the earth with 
plenty ; it seems to wreathe the heavens in smiles ; it tells 
man everywhere he is a child of God ; it tells him heaven is 
his home, and that his destiny is to have companionship with 
angels. It is thus that the teachings and injunctions of the 
Gospel lead to universal charity. 

Still, theoretical declarations amount to but little. Is there 
anything in the Gospel which corrects the evils of man's nat- 
ure, and leads to this state of love? Now, our highest con- 
ception of heaven is that of universal love. Earth can never 
reach this condition, unless the heart can be made pure, and 
hence, as a step towards universal charity, the heart of man 
must be, by some means, freed from its selfishness. Is it 
possible for the human heart to be made pure ? Ah ! how 
many of us answer : " No !" Why ? Because we know 
something of the depth of the impurity which is within 
us. We have such a conception of human nature, in its 
darkness and in its degradation, that we see the Scripture 
symbols are not exaggerated when the heart is likened to a 
cage of unclean beasts. Can the Ethiopian change his skin 
or the leopard his spots? Then may we, who are accustomed 
to do evil, learn to do well. Now, in the very conviction 
men have that the heart cannot be made pure you see a uni- 
versal assent to the doctrine of the depravity of man. For 
this much I say this morning, that if I were to say to you 
that my heart was perfectly pure, you would think I had un- 
bounded egotism. You would say : " That cannot be." If I 
were to tell you that your heart could now be made perfectly 
pure, you would hesitate, and say, "No; that cannot be; I 
must go on in wrong-doing ;" and yet the Gospel comes, 
whatever we may say personally, promising a pure heart, and 
telling men : " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall 
see God." 

If men could be made pure in heart, how happy they would 
be ! If you could be pure in heart, what a relief it would be ! 
The Gospel promises just this as the basis, the beginning-point 



2S SERMONS. 

of universal charity ; and it begins so differently from human 
schemes of purification, which say to men, " Cut off excres- 
cences; be elevated and pure" — looking at the external, and 
trying gradually to reach the depth of the internal from 
without. The Gospel begins in the heart ; its mandates 
come to the heart ; the word of God reaches to the inmost 
spirit. It says to the wicked man, " Thou shalt surely die ;" 
" the wages of sin is death ;" but then it comes with the 
promise : " But the gift of God is eternal life." This purity 
of heart is to be wrought in us by the Spirit of Almighty 
God. May I say to you this morning that there is a view of 
human nature that, early in my life, I did not take, but 
have taken of late, and personally it is of immense service to 
me. It seems to me that, in this nature of mine, there is 
room for more than my soul. Now, God might have so made 
me that this body and this mind of mine would have been so 
perfectly isolated that no other person's thoughts would have 
influence over me, that no other being in the wide universe 
could have power over me. I can understand how such a 
thing could be ; but I find that I am affected by public opin- 
ion, and I cannot help it. I cannot walk up the aisle of a 
church as perfectly unconcerned as when I walk over my own 
chamber-floor ; I cannot stand in a great crowd as cool and 
calm as I do in the midst of my own family, and that is evi- 
dence that the thoughts and opinions of the public somehow 
do affect this heart of mine. There is room in my nature, 
somehow, to take in the interests and thoughts of others, and 
to be swayed by them. Indeed, the whole process of educa- 
tion is this : the child influenced by the father, the mother, 
and the teacher — the contact of mind with mind — and the 
great problem is, that this power of mind over mind may be 
turned to good, and not to evil. 

Now, just as the spirit of my friend affects me, and I be- 
come like him by association with him, just as pupils learn to 
copy even the peculiarities of the teacher, taking in the pow- 
er of his spirit, so this heart of mine is susceptible also of an 
unseen and a spiritual influence. And if there be good and 
evil spirits, they may touch the human heart just as well as 



THE ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 29 

the spirits of the men who live about us ; and here comes in 
the fearful capability and terrible susceptibility of man. Your 
heart and mine has in it room, not only for itself, as control- 
ling this body, but to let in other influences, evil or good. 
There may come in evil spirits, that shall incite us to avarice, 
passion, and lust, and lead us astray ; and, as I look at men 
going down to ruin, it seems to me sometimes as if my eyes 
are almost open, and I see another beside the man, sitting as 
if enthroned in his heart, helping to govern his powers. These 
are the unseen influences that are moving and controlling us. 
They are around, above, and within us ; but we have the pow- 
er of selection. God, in his infinite mercy, has promised that 
he himself will come and dwell in us and be with us, and he 
has promised that the angels shall camp round about us. " He 
shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy 
ways ; the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them 
that fear him ;" and Jesus says of the man that keeps his com- 
mandments : " I will come unto him, and I will bring the Fa- 
ther with me, and we will take up our abode in him." Bless- 
ed truth ! that the God of light and of glory may, in some un- 
seen, mysterious way, come into this heart of mine ! and if 
Jesus will come into my heart, all shall be well. The storm 
may be raging without, but he will whisper : " Peace, be 
still." Death may seem to encompass me in his dark folds, 
but he will whisper, " Come forth," and my soul shall be 
loosed, and let go to dwell in. the bosom of eternal love. 

Now, if it be so, that a spirit lovelier, purer, and stronger 
than mine; if it be so, that the omnipotent God will conde- 
scend to come and dwell with me, may he not correct this 
heart? may he not give me strength to overcome my pas- 
sions? may he not hold all my errors in check? may not infi- 
nite love free me from the dominion of all the grosser passions ? 
may not infinite charity swell this bosom of mine ? may I not, 
in my spirit and actions, be like God, if he takes possession of 
me ? Is Christianity unreasonable in assuming that the heart 
will be pure if God dwells in it ? Is it unreasonable to assert 
that God will have perfect dominion over the soul if he sets up 
his throne there ? Oh ! when I think of the possibility of this 



30 SERMONS. 

frame of mine being the temple of the Holy Ghost (and that 
is what the apostle calls it — " Your body is the temple of the 
Holy Ghost "), how my heart exults ! Shall I have Christ in 
me the hope of glory ? Shall I be a son of God ? Shall I be 
an heir of heaven ? Then why may I not, by the indwelling 
of that power, be made pure in heart ? That is what Chris- 
tianity promises. And, if I can be made pure in heart, then 
I shall be prepared for this universal love. It is thus Chris- 
tianity commences in the heart and works outward, not by 
force, not by power, but by an indwelling of divine purity. 

If the heart be made pure, it will follow that there will be 
a good conscience — that is, I shall do right, I shall always aim 
at doing right ; I shall try to keep a conscience void of offence 
towards God and man. Without a good conscience, no mat- 
ter what we may say about purity of heart, our words will be 
as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. To every man I 
must be just. I must never impinge on the rights of any 
human being : I must allow him his sphere just as God allows 
me my sphere ; and if this principle prevails, will there be 
tyranny, oppression, fraud, and the manifestations of avarice? 
If I am taught to do right in everything, then shall I leave 
my neighbor unmolested in his rights. If all were thus influ- 
enced there would be honesty, social purity, and security for 
life and property, and thus Christianity, working from within, 
would prepare the way for universal peace. But, then, after 
all, something more is necessary. A Christian whose charac- 
ter is simply pure and honest is, after all, not a force in the 
world. There are many nominal Christians who have very 
little power for good ; they are all the time occupied with 
themselves. They wish to be happy, and that is well enough 
in its place — they are studying all the time their own nature. 
It is a kind of internal physiology they are occupied with — 
an examination of themselves; but the true Christian charac- 
ter goes beyond a pure heart and a good conscience, and exer- 
cises a faith unfeigned. And what is that faith ? It is a con- 
viction of the unseen, spiritual, and eternal — a conviction that 
God is my Father and is ever near me, and that this world is 
full of light. An ancient poet rises up to the great concep- 



THE ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 31 

tion, "It is in Him we live and move and have our being;" 
but it is only Christian faith that realizes it. To the man who 
has faith unfeigned, in whom it exists in its plenitude of 
power, God is always present. He is in this assembly this 
morning, here beside me. Place me on the mountain-top, 
and, if I have faith unfeigned, I recognize that God is there ; 
place me in the lonely wilderness, and God will be there; 
place me in the city full, where hurrying crowds may jostle 
me, yet God is nearer to me than the crowds, for omnipotent 
compassion encircles me in its arms. I am the Lord's, and 
he is mine. Ah ! how often have you and I sung, 

"Nearer, my God, to thee, 

Nearer to thee ; 
E'en though it be a cross 

That raiseth me, 
Yet still my song shall be, 
Nearer, my God, to thee, 

Nearer to thee." 

Has it ever occurred to you, my Christian friend, that God 
is more anxious to come near to you than you are to go to 
him? Has it ever occurred to you that God has come — if I 
may use the phrase — ninety-nine hundredths of the way in 
his anxiety to meet you? Did not the Saviour leave his 
throne and embosom himself in humanity ? Did he not talk 
and live to give you a consciousness that God is near you? 
Oh ! he came to be near and save you, and to take away the 
veil ! How beautiful the figure in which he represents him- 
self as saying : " Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If 
any man will open the door, I will come in to him." Is not 
that enough? The great God stands at your heart and mine, 
and, gently tapping, as if by the fingers of his love, he calls, 
"Open, open, open," and his fulness is ready to enter in. 
Now, if I have that faith unfeigned that thus brings God 
near me, what a panoply of power shall clothe me ! " I 
will not fear what man can do unto me," said David, when 
he felt this. " Though an host should rise against me, in this 
will I be confident." Man can lean on the arm of God if 
God be near him, and then he feels the meaning of that 



32 SERMONS. 

sweet promise, " Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose 
mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee." Ah ! 
never did you see a little babe cling so closely to its mother's 
bosom, and rest in such perfect consciousness of safety and 
of peace, as fills the soul of the man who rests in the arms of 
the everlasting One. We draw closely up to the pulsations of 
the great heart that beats with universal love. 

And, then, that faith has more in it. It fits for duty and 
gives strength. Why am I here? Not for myself. Ah! 
there is nothing for itself. The sun does not shine for itself ; 
its golden rays cheer the distant parts of the universe. Yon- 
der stars may twinkle not for themselves, but for the worlds 
about them. The sweetness of the flower is not for itself ; it 
may be trodden on and yield a perfume, but the perfume is 
for others. There is not a mountain-top or valley, there is 
not a running stream, there is not a note of music, that goes 
carolling from the throat of the songster of the grove, that is 
for itself. Man cannot live for himself; you and I are not 
here for ourselves ; we are here because God has sent us to 
fill some particular place in his great universe. You and I 
are here with just the complexion, the stature, the power, and 
the peculiarities we have, because God — I may say it with 
reverence — needs such a being in such a place as he has put 
you and me in. And now, then, a work presents itself. 
What shall I do? These hands have a work to perform, 
there is something for this head to plan, this heart to feel, 
this mind to think, and this tongue to utter. What power 
has God given me? When man feels this heavenly commis- 
sion, how he is lifted up! He is not here to dwell merely in 
this community or that — not here to eat, drink, sleep, and die. 
No, no. He is here to accomplish a work for which he is sent 
of God, and faith comes to his aid ; and when he feels that he 
is engaged in that mission, God strengthens his arm, inspires 
his intellect, and touches his tongue with power. 

Men make a mark in society when they are men of faith. 
Look at Cromwell. What a life he led ! He had his peculi- 
arities and his defects, but what a faith he had. Look at him 
in the opening of the battle of Naseby, when the light of the 



THE ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 33 

morning sun was just coming up, shining in the face of his 
adversaries ; and, as he led his army on to charge, the battle- 
cry was the old song in the Psalms, " Let God arise, let his 
enemies be scattered." What courage the power of faith 
gave to the people ! You say, " It was all fanaticism ; they 
thought God was with them." Admit for a moment that it 
was fanaticism, yet if they could do such great things with 
the conviction that God was with them, what cannot be ac- 
complished by those who really have the power of God to 
strengthen their arms? Look at the heroic deeds of men. 
Take Joan of Arc, the delicate, frail girl, untrained to war ; 
and yet, under the conviction that God called her to go and 
deliver France from English oppression, she places herself at 
the head of the army, great generals bow down before her, 
and victory crowns her pathway. The arm of God went 
with her ; and that feeble girl became the deliverer of France. 
But what power this faith gives to a child of God ! Let 
me feel I have God's rod in my hand, and I will smite the 
rock ; let me feel I have God's rod in my hand, and the wa- 
ters of the Red Sea shall tower ; let me feel that I have God's 
authority, and I will command Jordan to be rolled backward, 
that the hosts may go through. Such is the power of un- 
feigned faith. Fanaticism claims it foolishly ; faith claims it 
on rational grounds. It is this faith that gives the Christian 
his position and power. Sometimes you will find one who 
seems to be a very good Christian in his place, but he has no 
particular plans, and is not accomplishing anything. The man 
of faith will dare to act on principle, no matter where it leads 
him ; and, though all the world rise up against him, he will 
stand, like Athanasius, against the world, for he stands on a 
rock ; he feels that God has said so, and that is enough. All 
the great reforms of society have rested on faith. Often a 
single man begins, and is derided and almost overborne, yet, 
assured that he is right, he goes forward, and, by and by, tri- 
umph crowns the struggle. Is not this the history of reforms 
everywhere ? It is faith which gives the power to stand in the 
seen, because the unseen is ours. I do not wonder that Elisha 
felt strong when he could see what I cannot see. I am like 

3 



34: SERMONS. 

Lis servant, who looked out in the morning, beheld the Assyr- 
ians all about the city, and said : "Alas ! master, what shall we 
do '?" Elisha answered : " Fear not; for they that be with us 
are far more than they that be with them." That was a very 
strange answer for the young man. He was inwardly saying : 
"Here are thousands of armed men around; we are with- 
out protection ; what will become of us?" But Elisha had a 
clearer vision, and said : " Lord, I pray thee open his eyes." 
His eyes were opened, and the hills round about were full of 
chariots and horses of fire, and then the servant was calmed. 

When I can look into the invisible, my soul grows stead}'. 
I may feel the billows under my feet, and may fancy I shall 
be overwhelmed, but when my eyes are open, and I see the 
invisible hosts surrounding me, I am not afraid to trust in 
God, even though I am alone. Isow, it is this faith un- 
feigned that gives to Christianity its power. "Would that 
the ministry were clothed with this power in our age ! 
Oh ! if I could feel to-day, standing in my place, that un- 
feigned faith I ought to feel, and could realize that my 
Master is just beside me, and that, in all my words, he is 
speaking, I know your hearts would be reached, that your 
consciences would be touched, and that you would go away 
from this place with higher aims ; you would go away to be 
better men than ever you have been. Chrysostom used to 
preach eloquent and beautiful sermons, and yet people's hearts 
were not much moved. He thought he had a vision. He 
saw himself preaching, and angels were all around him sitting 
in the altar, and right before him was the Lord Jesus Christ. 
The next morning he went to his pulpit, and that vision of 
the angels was there, and his Masters eye was upon him, and 
he delivered such a sermon that they called him the " Golden- 
mouthed," because he became so earnestly eloquent for his 
God. Let the Church be inspired with these three elements 
— a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned — and 
what a power it would be to overcome the world ! Then its 
great mission would be one of charity and of love. Its agencies 
are spiritual, in the main, but, in its aim, it takes in all the 
elements of earth and of heaven. I do rejoice that man was 



THE ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 35 

made to govern this earth, and my creed is, and has long been, 
that there is not a current in the air nor in the sea, nor an ele- 
ment anywhere within the reach of possible human investiga- 
tion, but God gave to man to be governed and controlled by 
him. Man was made to rule the earth, and the only reason 
he has not ruled it is because he has been abandoned to pas- 
sion and lust, and has become a brute rather than a man : in- 
stead of soaring Godward he has sunk earthward. 

And now, dear Christian friends, let me ask, have you this 
salvation that makes the heart pure, that makes the conscience 
right, and that gives you faith unfeigned ? Have your eyes 
been opened ? Have you had glimpses of the unseen ? Are 
you living a life of faith on the Son of God ? Are you alone 
in the world, or is Jesus with you ? It is your blessed privi- 
lege to have a consciousness of sins forgiven, that Jesus loves 
you, and that he dwells with you ; to have an assurance that 
you are an heir of glory, which will reconcile you, if need be, 
to a life of sorrow and to the hour of death. If you have 
this assurance I bid yon God-speed. Let your motto be, on- 
ward and upward. A little while longer, and earth's scenes 
shall be over, and angels' songs shall fall upon your ears; a 
little while longer, and the Master's voice shall say : " Come 
up higher." Oh ! how much higher ! A little while longer, 
and all tears shall forever be wiped from our eyes. Men of 
business and of might, daughters of affliction and scorn, chil- 
dren of poverty, wherever you are, whoever you may be, ev- 
ery one of you may be there. When Christ shall make up 
his jewels, God grant that you may shine like diamonds, spark- 
ling with the glory of your Master. 



III. 



dMit €\mu in Wa 3Batib, 



OUK TIMES IN GOD'S HAND. 

A NEW- YEAR'S SERMON. 
"My times are in thy hand." — Psalm xxxi. 15. 

Such is the language of the Psalmist of Israel, who was 
not only eloquent in song, but strong in arms and mighty in 
deed. He uttered it on a review of the way in which God 
had led him. In his youth he was a shepherd-boy. God had 
then shielded him in the wilderness from the ravenous beasts. 
A young man and a conqueror, the daughters of Israel had 
met him singing, " Saul has slain his thousands, but David his 
tens of thousands," and yet, immediately afterwards, his lot 
was changed, and he fled as a wanderer to deserts and to caves, 
the king of Israel pursuing him from mountain to mountain. 
Again, the crown was placed upon him and the multitudes ut- 
tered his praise. He saw his enemies vanquished and his land 
at peace. He gathered the materials for building the temple 
on Mount Moriah — a costly edifice to be erected by his son. 
Again, one of his sons rose in rebellion against him, and the 
people who had bowed the knee to him joined in the rebel- 
lion, and he left the site which he had chosen, fleeing to the 
valley of the Jordan. His " tears were his meat day and 
night." An exile from his own dominions, he lamented the 
ingratitude of his people and the perfidy of his son. Yet in 
the midst of all these revolutions, reviewing his life, he said : 
" My times are in thy hand." 

Our lives may not have been thus checkered. "We have not 
known the heights of prosperity or the depths of adversity 
which that ancient king knew. "We may not have seen so 
strikingly and so abundantly the goodness of God upon the 
one hand, or danger and darkness upon the other, and yet our 
lives, too, have been scenes of varied experience. As we re- 



40 SERMONS. 

fleet upon life at the commencement of the new year, doubt- 
less many of ns can say, as did the Psalmist : " My times are 
in thy hand." Is it not profitable for us on this, the first Sab- 
bath of the new year, as we look back upon the goodness of 
God in the past, and cast a glance into the future, to consider 
for a few moments in what sense our times are in God's hand 
— how he has led us, how he guides us, and what are his great 
purposes in reference to us % 

In the first place, it may be said, our times are in God's 
hand in this sense, that he alone has chosen for us the period 
of the world in which we should live. In the long history 
of the ages — the centuries of the past and the centuries to 
come, the whole sweep of time — God, in his infinite wisdom, 
has chosen for us that we should live in this, the middle pe- 
riod, of the world's history. To us it may seem to be its 
closing scene, for we know the past. To us it may seem that 
the earth is growing gray with age — she counts her years by 
multitudes of centuries ; and yet, could we look far enough for- 
ward, we should very possibly discern that the earth has scarce- 
ly yet reached its mid point; that youth is upon its frame, 
that great prospects are before it, that scenes grander than 
yet have been are in the coming future, and that long thou- 
sands of years hereafter men will look back upon our time 
possibly as we look upon the centuries past. Be that as it 
may, God has chosen for us, for some wise reason, this age of 
the world. And if he has chosen for us this period in the 
world's history, is it not that we should study what that his- 
tory indicates, what the age demands, what its exigencies call 
for ; and that we should feel that, placed here, we are to live, 
not as men did centuries ago, merely, but that, as the world, 
in its advancing history, has developed resource after resource, 
so we should measure up to his grand design. Feeling that 
God has placed us in this age that we may make our impress 
on it, we should prepare ourselves faithfully for doing his 
work. 

The same thought would lead us to consider that, not only 
in this age of the world has our lot been appointed, but on 
this precise part of the earth's surface. "We sometimes boast 



OUR TIMES IN GOD'S HAND. 41 

that we are Americans ; and we take to ourselves special hon- 
or, as though in some way we had part of the glory of being 
American citizens ; yet God hath chosen this for us. Oar 
" times are in his hand." Why came we not to see the light 
in India, or in China, or in the islands of the sea, or in some 
place of darkness? Why in this land of liberty, this land of 
plenty, this land of glory ? Why % " Even so, Father, for so 
it seemed good in thy sight." We are Americans, we are in 
this nineteenth century, because God so willed it; we are in 
this age of civilization, with all these vast instrumentalities 
and agencies about us, not of our choice, not of our merit, not 
because we are better or wiser than others, but simply because 
our times, in this sense, are in God's hand. 

Again, our circumstances and the direction of our lives 
upon earth are in God's hand. We think of the friends of 
our youth, and many a one of us who has come to middle 
years, or even to riper age, feels himself to be like a lone tree 
that once saw its associates about it, but has witnessed their 
falling trunks and torn bark, has seen some of them riven 
by the lightnings, others prostrated by the storm. So we are 
standing while the generations that rose up by our side are 
sleeping in the ground ; we are the remnants of the great 
multitude that in our younger days with gleeful feet trod our 
native soil. Why is this ? Why are we spared when so many 
have fallen — the bright, the beautiful, the gifted, the glo- 
rious ? How many, like opening buds, were blasted by the 
frost — half-developed flowers ! Others, in riper age, withered, 
hour by hour, and we have seen them pass away. Even in 
our own households the angel of death has entered, and we 
have seen the dark shadow thrown over our hearthstones. 
Why is it that we live? Because our times are in the 
hand of God. We live because it is his good pleasure that 
we should still have a work to do and responsibilities to 
meet. 

Not only so, but we shall see that our times are in his hand, 
if we consider how impotent, comparatively, we are in respect 
to all the elements around us ; how liable in a moment to be 
called hence. We are a travelling people, and how many ac- 



42 SERMONS. 

cidents by railway and by steamer, fearful accidents, hasten 
our friends into the unseen world ! And yet we pass and re- 
pass, and still are safe. Consider, also, the epidemics that 
spread over the earth. Thousands have fallen in our cities, 
and friends have been cut down in their dwellings. The angel 
of death has passed by, and we have seemed almost to feel in 
the air the motion of his wings, and yet we are spared. How 
many thousands of dangers are there ! When we look at 
them, we can say : " There is but a step betwixt us and 
death." If we think of the air which our lungs inhale, how 
easily it might be vitiated — some noxious vapor might rise from 
the earth, and our lives would end. How forcibly did Daniel 
say to the king : " The God in whose hand thy breath is, and 
whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified !" Our breath 
is in the hand of God, in w T hom " we live and move and have 
our being ;" and as such it is of the mercy of God that this 
strange something which we call vitality courses through our 
veins. Whether you and I shall live to close the year upon 
which we have entered is known only to God. There are 
families here, doubtless, that shall have weary hearts during 
the coming year — parents whose eyes shall weep tears of sor- 
row, dear friends that shall be called to mourn, for such we 
know has been the history of the past, and the past casts its 
shadows on the time to come. Whether we shall be of the 
number that fall is known only to God. If we live to the" 
end of the year which we have now so auspiciously begun, it 
will simply be because God's hand shall be over us for good, 
and the arms of his grace shall be around us laid. 

Again, our times are in God's hand as to the opportunities 
enjoyed, both for personal improvement and for conferring 
benefits upon others. We ought to be thankful for the oppor- 
tunities of improvement w r e enjoy; and yet they bring re- 
sponsibilities. If we have the opportunity to learn, it is our 
duty to learn. God speaks to us through our opportunities. 
If he has given us minds capable of research ; if he has given 
us leisure and facilities for research, then it is his will that we 
should understand this world in which we dwell. If this uni- 
verse is of God's construction, it is our duty to study it. We 



OUR TIMES IN GOD'S HAND. 43 

should examine our relations to it, seeing that all these things 
are given us richly to enjoy. And as opportunities of im- 
provement are granted us, so are opportunities for doing good. 
There are the poor to be relieved, the sick to be comforted, 
the downcast to be lifted up. We have opportunities, if we 
are strong, to take the weak by the hand ; if we are joyous, 
to let the breath of joy pervade the hearts of others ; if we 
have light, to shed it on those who are in darkness. If God 
gives us a view of this earth — the shadows on it, the dark- 
ness overspreading it, the evils encircling it — it is that we 
may, in our degree, remove those evils, and thus be angels of 
light. 

Again, we are not our own. The Psalmist said: "I know 
that it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." We 
may have wisdom, learning, wealth, power, influence, and yet 
we have not power to lift, for one hour, the veil which hides 
the future from our view 7 . The strongest arm cannot lift that 
veil; the wisest mind cannot penetrate beyond the cloud. 
God directs our pathway from morn till night, much more 
from the beginning of the year till its end ; and if this be a 
happy year, a year of usefulness, a year in which we shall live 
to make this earth better, it is because God will direct our 
pathway. How important, then, to feel our dependence upon 
him ! JSTot only are our ways not our own, they are not un- 
der the control of our friends. We have fathers and moth- 
ers who love us, brothers and sisters who confide in us and 
cheer us, children who honor us and have deep affection for 
us, and yet all of them combined cannot avert the provi- 
dences of God — cannot keep sickness from us, cannot keep 
the angel of death away. As friends cannot save us or di- 
rect us, neither can our enemies overwhelm us. Our times 
are in God's hand, and not in the hands of our enemies. 
There may be those who traduce us, who misconceive or mis- 
represent us, who have feelings of unkindness towards us, yet 
our times are so in God's hand that our enemies are held as 
if chained by the wayside. There is a voice which seems to 
say to our foes, though their multitude should surge like bil- 
lows of the ocean : " Thus far, but no farther." 



44 SERMONS. 

If God thus encircles us by the agencies of his providential 
power and grace, there are some reflections which may be prof- 
itable in beginning the duties of the new year. 

First, we ought to feel our dependence on God — not on man, 
not on the best-laid plans. We should confess that we are in 
the hands of God. If he uphold us, if he encircle us, oh ! 
how safe ! If we can lie on his bosom, as a child on the bos- 
om of its mother, how sweet shall be our rest ! We cannot 
be independent. God does indeed teach us self-reliance. He 
requires us to exert our energies; we have intellect for the 
purpose of estimating, as best we may, the agencies to be em- 
ployed and the ways to be chosen. HSTo man should trust 
himself to God's guidance without exerting his powers, for 
God gives him that part of the work to do, and what he en- 
ables man to do he never does for him. We are to exert our- 
selves to the utmost, to be " diligent in business, fervent in 
spirit, serving the Lord." We are to think what should best 
be done and how we should best do it. But in the midst of 
all, we should remember that light and wisdom come from 
God alone — that he directs the pathway, and though circling 
darkness may seem to close around, and the shades of night 
to gather upon us, it is ever light where God's eye rests. A 
ray from heaven always shines upon the path which is placed 
directly under the guidance of God. This sense of depend- 
ence should keep us in the attitude of praj^er. If we live by 
the bounty of God, are directed and controlled by him, should 
we not ask him, from day to day, for guidance ? Look at that 
well-ordered household : will not the daughter wish to know 
her mother's purposes, and how her mother wishes her to be 
employed ? Will not that faithful son study his father's will, 
and seek his counsel ? We are children — God is our Father. 
We are more dependent on God than is any son upon his fa- 
ther; and if so, should We not bend to him in prayer? should 
we not ask what God wills us to do, and, humbly and suppli- 
antly before his throne, pray that light may shine on our 
paths, and that grace may distil into our hearts ? Tell me not 
it is unmanly to pray ; tell me not it indicates a lack of self- 
reliance to invoke divine aid. Unmanly to pray ! Is it un- 



OUR TIMES IN GOD'S HAND. 45 

manly for a son to ask counsel of his father ? Is it unmanly 
for a client to ask advice of his attorney % Is it unmanly for 
a patient to ask counsel of his physician ? Is it unmanly for 
us to ask the man of science to guide our thoughts ? Is it un- 
manly for us to read books written by the wisest men to throw 
light upon obscure passages of God's Word? 

The wisest men are the most docile students. If it be not 
unmanly to ask of fallible and dependent men like ourselves, 
who may have seen a little farther, in some directions, than 
we have seen, is it unmanly to stand before the throne of 
God and ask for light from the Ancient of Days ? to ask of 
Him who alone can raise the curtain which conceals futurity 
to let some ray of light peer through ? Is it unmanly to ask 
of Him who holds all agencies in his hand to use us accord- 
ing to the counsel of his own will ? It is manly to pray ; it 
is wise to pray ; and we should be in the attitude of prayer 
in the beginning of this year. We should pray that God may 
direct our steps through all its days and weeks. The whole 
future may be dependent upon the few hours before us. We 
may take some step which will change the course of our 
lives. Is it not wise to ask God for direction? He alone 
sees the end from the beginning; he alone sees the in- 
finite connections of events. And, oh ! if I thought he 
would drop counsel into w\y heart — would tell me what way 
is best, would show me what I should do to be happy here 
and to all eternity — should I not bow before him and pray ? 
And God, the infinite God, promises that he will hear my 
prayer, that he will look upon me when I tremble at his 
word, and that he will direct me when I trust in him with 
all my heart. Then shall I not come prayerfully before his 
throne? 

Only by realizing this great truth do we prepare ourselves 
either for great happiness or for great usefulness. The God 
in whose hand our times are holds the times of all other hu- 
man beings; holds all agencies, directs all events according to 
the counsel of his will ; and we shall be successful only when 
we place ourselves directly in harmony with his laws. You 
may see the woodman in the forest trying to split the tree 



46 SERMONS. 

and mould its wood into shape. He can do so only when he 
studies how God made that tree — the law of its growth. In 
one direction he may separate it ; in another he may apply the 
stroke in vain. In one way he works according to God's law 
and God's plans ; in the other he goes contrary to God's will 
— the law of nature. Simple as is the illustration, it is true 
with regard to great movements: we can succeed only when 
we work in harmony with God's providences. Give yourself 
to that stream. It is easy to float down with the current, 
which God has made to run from the mountain-top to the 
great ocean ; but let us reverse our course, and stem the cur- 
rent, then only shall we know its strength. The strongest 
arm is powerless before it, and the utmost effort impotent. 
So with us — we shall succeed if we work in harmony with 
God's plans : if we work in opposition, we shall be vainly 
striving against him. 

What are God's great designs in this world? Are we not 
taught that he desires the elevation of man, that he smiles 
upon purity and rectitude, that he wills the happiness of 
his creatures? "Was not this world created to be explored? 
Were not all the treasures of the valleys and mountains made 
for man ? Is it not part of his design that man shall at- 
tain supreme control over the elements? that he shall reign 
really as God's vicegerent on this earth? that his intellect 
shall be expanded, his moral nature purified? If such are 
God's purposes we shall work in harmony with him only 
wdien we place ourselves where, according to our sphere, we 
shall labor to accomplish them. When we become co-workers 
with God ; when we catch his great ideas of human prog- 
ress ; when we think those thoughts of his that alone can ex- 
pand the human mind; when we are in sympathy with all 
whom God has made, and whom he loves — only when such 
thoughts swell our hearts do we work in harmony with him. 

And, what shall we see of order then ! I stand and gaze at 
the heavens. I see a planet pursuing its course onward, and 
then it seems to pause and turn back again. And why? I 
am not standing at the centre. If I were standing in the sun 
I would see that movement which now seems so irregular— 



OUR TIMES IN GOD'S HAND. 47 

forward and backward — to be steadily on w T ard. I w T ould see 
the planet moving in its orbit coming to the time to a mo- 
ment, for thousands of years keeping step with the movement 
of the universe, joining in the music of the heavenly choirs, 
and would behold wisdom, regularity, beauty, and glory ev- 
erywhere displayed. So, when I am out of harmony with 
God's plans, not seeing his designs, the world is all confusion 
and darkness: w r rong is triumphing; empires are rising and 
falling without order; there is no clew to history; battles, 
revolutions, convulsions, are without object or aim. But let 
me stand at the centre; let me comprehend the plans of in- 
finite w T isdom, and I see society in all its movements steadily 
advancing. Great ideas are being diffused. In every change 
I recognize the hand of God. I read his will in the events 
occurring about me. Then I am prepared to labor for his 
cause, and to learn that even a cup of cold water given to a 
poor, perishing laborer, lying down to die, shall not lose its 
reward, because it is part of the great plan of Jehovah — shall 
see, wherever I stand, that I am part of that infinite multi- 
tude which, taken as a whole, is accomplishing his grand 
purpose. 

There is a kind of painting called mosaic. It is composed 
of small pieces of stone or glass, almost immeasurably small. 
Each particle is by itself worthless ; you would crush it under 
your feet, would naturally pass it by unnoticed; but let the 
true artist construct the mosaic; let him take those infinitely 
small pieces, and place them in order, and what beautiful 
shadings of outlines are given to it ! how grand the concep- 
tion ! You can scarcely distinguish it from the finest paint- 
ing by the pencil, and yet multitudes of apparently worthless 
pieces compose it. So I sometimes look upon men. In one 
sense 'We are insignificant. What can we do? so very feeble, 
inefficient, limited, what can we accomplish ? And yet, when 
the Artist of the universe takes us and places us in the mo- 
saic which the universe shall yet gaze upon with wonder, 
small as we are, we shall be part of his great design. In the 
redemption of humanity, the up-building of all that is glo- 
rious on earth, we may have some place, though small. And 



48 SERMONS. 

as the beautiful mosaic would be marred by the omission of 
the smallest particle, so, without us, that painting had been 
imperfect, but with us it becomes complete. 

Let me, then, give myself to work just where God designs 
me to be ; let it be in a colliery, all well ; in the forest, all 
well ; or let it be in the city, in professional life. Place me 
just where God wills me to be placed, to do just what he 
wills that I should do, and, small as I am, not the angel Ga- 
briel could fill my place in the great picture which God is 
working out. If I take this conception into my heart, how 
sublime becomes my mission in life ! I am not here with- 
out an object; I am not here without a home; I am not 
here for to-day, then to lie down and be buried beneath the 
clods of the earth : I am here for all eternity, here not only 
to be read and known of men, but to be read and known 
throughout the ages. I am here because God has sent me 
to do a work that no other being could do but myself. Had 
there not been room for me, God had not made me. Had 
I not been needed in America, God had not placed me in 
America. Had I not work in the nineteenth century, I had 
not been born. "Were there not room for my intellect and 
arm, God had not given them to me. I have a place — am 
sent of God on a mission, and if I perform it God shall ac- 
knowledge that I have done his will, and shall some day say, 
even to one so worthless as myself : " Well done, good and 
faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 

I would that these young men here, this morning, could 
feel that they have a work in life, and could see themselves 
sent of God. Oh ! if I were to gaze on yon heavens, and in 
some clear, starry night should see some orb, unknown before, 
shining in those heavens, how I would watch it ! Every as- 
tronomer would turn his glass towards it, would calculate its 
magnitude and position, and ask why this new world was 
created to shine amid the older constellations. We might 
not be able perfectly to determine the great purposes of the 
Creator, but we would hail it with joy. So, young man, 
young woman, he sends you into society to be as a light. 
" Ye are the light of the world," to shine amid the stars 



OUR TIMES IN GOD'S HAND. 49 

which have preceded you, and you have your mission, which 
no one can take from you. You are not here for a moment, 
but for eternity ; your times are in God's hand. He leads 
you as much as if you saw the divine arm encircling you. 
He directs your pathway as fully as though he sent his angel 
to show you every step you should take. 

We have not the consciousness of such a divine presence 
and guidance, because that would supersede the use of the in- 
tellects which God has given us. We must have a sense of 
being alone to make us self-reliant, and then we must have 
the additional thought that we are not alone, but that God is 
with us, to give us full power to do all his will. Thus has it 
ever been, in all nations, with great reformers whose names 
live on earth. Why did Luther move all Europe ? Men as 
great as Luther were probably living in obscurity. Luther 
conceived the ideas that God had for the age ; he uttered the 
words which God wished to be uttered ; he took the steps 
God wished to be taken ; he moved in harmony with God's 
great designs ; and earth shall retain the name of Luther as 
long as man shall tread its soil. So with other successful re- 
formers. Turn from these to the men who forsook God's 
counsel. Look at the folly of Napoleon. While he worked 
for God's great purposes — liberty and freedom — success at- 
tended him ; when he became emperor, and grasped the 
crowns of Europe, when he invaded Eussia in his passion for 
self-aggrandizement, the very stars in their courses fought 
against him. There was a strange coming of winter's storms, 
earlier than was ever known before, and there were strange 
combinations to defeat his plans. And why ? Because he 
stepped out of the sphere God had appointed when he ceased 
to be the apostle of liberty, and became the apostle of tyran- 
ny. Read the history of the Israelites. When they went 
where God directed, the Red Sea presented no difficulty, Jor- 
dan no obstacle. When they lacked food, bread came down 
from heaven. When they lacked water, the rugged rock, at 
the touch of Moses' rod, sent forth its crystal stream. What 
if their enemies, like giants, combined against them? They 
were scattered as chaff. What if they stood before cities 

4 



50 SERMONS. 

whose towering walls defied their weapons of war? The voice 
of shouting and joy brought down those walls. God made 
them efficient. But the moment they turned to do what God 
willed they should not do, that moment they turned their 
backs upon their enemies and fled. When they obeyed God, 
one could chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to 
flight ; but when they rebelled, discomfiture and captivity be- 
tided them. Is not this the history of the world ? Read it 
in the light of God's providence. Summon up Egypt and 
Phoenicia ; call upon the nations of to-day, and you will find 
them rising just as they carry out God's commands. Look 
at old Spain, which three centuries ago laid her hands on the 
wealth of the civilized world. Look at the empire of Charles 
V. Look also at England in her little isle without means 
or grandeur. Spain withheld God's Book from her people, 
while England gave to her people its glorious lessons. Spain 
lost her territories and her position, night covered her, and 
she sank from being one of the grandest to the position of 
one of the humblest nations, until now, at last, from the 
depths of her slumbers, a voice seems to be waking her to 
honor again. England rose with the Bible, and has laid her 
arms around the extremities of the world, gathering an im- 
mensity of treasure. Turn to this country, and you will see 
that just as our fathers worked in harmony with God, he 
crowned them with glory, and when they failed to do what 
God designed, division and strife came in upon them. Look 
upon the world, and, it seems to me, when recognizing God 
in it, all is flaming with light; banish him from it, and all 
is impenetrable darkness. 

What a source of comfort is it, when we can believe fully 
that our times are in God's hand ! Let enemies misconceive 
or misrepresent us; let them gather to destroy us; let them 
combine in all their power — if God be for us, who can be 
against us? If we can feel we are resting upon the bosom 
of Omnipotence, what can disturb our repose ? One of the 
most glorious truths which God has revealed to us appears to 
me to be that the " wrath of men shall praise him, and that 
the remainder of wrath he will restrain." It may be that 



OUR TIMES IN GOD'S HAND. 51 

the very evils which some of us fear are only the occasion of 
working out some good. When I consider this subject, as it 
appears to me revealed in God's Word, I cannot avoid grow- 
ing more and more confident, as years increase. Tell me of 
difficulties and trials ; I know something of them. But this 
I have learned, that, in all ages, the men who have done right 
have been successful. Just at the moment when darkness 
seems closing in upon man is the time when God strikes light 
in his heart, and opens before him a clear pathway. It is out 
of the bosom of the blackest cloud that the brightest light- 
ning gleams athwart the skv. When the w r orld is encircled in 
gloom, God sends flashes of thought and power which seem 
to light it up. Each flash seems to say : " What has man to 
dread ? God rules supreme. His hand is on the billows of 
the ocean ; he touches the mountains and they smoke ; he 
rides upon the tempest, and makes the clouds his pavilion. 
When we confide in his power and in his love, all things 
work together for good." 

"Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, 
But trust him for his grace ; 
Behind a frowning providence 
He hides a smiling face." 

If this be true, why mourn over w T hat you call the disasters 
of life ? Eead the design of God in all the afflictions of 
earth. Does he take a dear one away ? Ah ! there is gloom 
in the household. But there is light above; and sometimes 
the thought of the dear one seems like opening a door in 
heaven to give brighter light than we ever saw before. The 
thought of friends in glory makes heaven sweeter than ever 
to us. Are there disasters in business, and is property swept 
away ? It may be to show us the riches in heaven that earth's 
destroyers cannot reach — that we should feel more dependent, 
be more trustful. It was good for the Psalmist that he was 
afflicted, and it may be good for us. The poor prodigal felt, 
in his degradation, the impulse which called him to his father's 
house. It was in the midst of the husks and swine that there 
rose before his entranced vision the bliss of his former home, 
and he exclaimed : " I will arise and go to my father !" I 



52 SERMONS. 

see him rising and returning; the father meeting him, and 
falling on his neck; the robe put upon him, the feast and joy. 
All was well — the dead was alive, the lost was found. It may 
be that some of us, like prodigals, need to go home again, and 
our sorrows are but lessons to call us back to Jesus. 

And now, dear friends, on this holy Sabbath-day, begin- 
ning this new year, what resolutions shall we make in the 
house of God ? Let us resolve to realize more than we have 
before that our times are in God's hand. Let us see the in- 
visible all around us ; it is very near. Some of us may be 
treading the very edge of the invisible this morning. Very 
near may be realities little dreamed of — nay, quite before us. 
It matters little, if we do God's will. It is just as sweet to 
be in heaven as to be on earth. Just as glorious songs will 
be sung in the temple above as in this sanctuary below. 
Tell me I may lose my Christian friends if I leave them ! 
Not at all. I shall not lose them. I may pass to the other 
side of the veil, and may look through and see them in their 
tears, but they shall come after, and I shall meet them. It is 
only bidding adieu a few days, to meet forever in our Father's 
house. What matters it if I go a little earlier or a little 
later ? I take a journey to join friends gone before. Some 
of us have most of our friends to-day in the other world — 
more up there than here. Many of us have a great company 
of friends in heaven, and though we leave the few below 
temporarily, we go to join those we never shall leave again ; 
and those we leave will soon follow. 

What sublimity does this thought of divine guidance give 
us ! The old Mohammedan soldiers had the idea that they 
never could die until their time came — that they would die 
just as soon in the bosom of their families as in the army. 
What heroes this belief made of them ! How fearless ! how 
daring! how unconquerable, as their hosts marched onward! 
All the difference, they believed, was, that if they died at 
home they died cowards and traitors, while if they died in 
the army they died as saints and as martyrs, and went direct 
to a world of bliss. Oh ! if, as Christians, we feel the full 
force of the thought that God watches over us, and whether 



OUR TIMES IN GOD'S HAND. 53 

we live or die all is well — that a few days earlier or later 
make no difference ; that we are destined for heaven, work- 
ing while God lets us work, and rejoicing when God gives 
us to rejoice, how irresistible will be this power, and how 
happy shall we be ! Have you this happiness this morn- 
ing? Do you know " that to live is Christ, to die is gain ?" 
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, you 
may know it — you may know that you are in harmony with 
God. To be such, come to the cross. Feel the sprinkled 
blood — know the joys of pardoned sin; become a child of 
God ; enter on life with higher aspirations ; and thus your 
times shall be in God's hand, and to all eternity you shall 
be before his throne. God grant that, in his great day, ev- 
ery one in this audience may be crowned with endless life. 



IV. 



Cjje CjjrMtntr Jfltnwinj. 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.* 

"But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto 
myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which 
I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of 
God. " — Acts xx. 24. 

The selection of these words rests chiefly upon the fact that 
I am about to address the members of the Conference. I have 
desired to say somewhat that may be of interest to my younger 
brethren in the ministry ; and yet there may be possibly sug- 
gestions of profit to members of the Church in their vari- 
ous relations to it, and I ask you to pray that God may direct 
me so in the administration of his word that each may receive 
a portion in due season. 

The subject presented to our view is that of a Christian, 
and a Christian minister, facing the most fearful afflictions 
with the consciousness of their being on his part unde- 
served. The Apostle of the Gentiles had almost finished 
his ministerial career. He had visited different parts of 
Asia Minor and of Greece, he had passed through conflicts 
at various points, and he now felt a heart yearning to go 
up once more to Jerusalem, and after that to proceed to 
Rome. But, as he was leaving Macedonia for Jerusalem, 
there came indications to him everywhere that there were 
afflictions awaiting him. The Spirit testified of bonds and 
of imprisonment. The brethren became exceedingly anxious 
respecting him. In one place, before he reached Jerusa- 
lem, a prophet took off his girdle from him, and, binding his 
own hands and feet, said, " Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So 
shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this 
girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles ;" 

* Preached before the British Wesleyan Conference, at Burslem, Aug. 1st, 1870. 



58 SERMONS. 

and the disciples who were accompanying Paul wept, and be- 
sought him not to go up to Jerusalem. Now, the apostle w T as 
possessed of the tenderest sympathies, and yet he had an un- 
bending will whenever he felt a sense of duty resting upon 
him; he said: "What mean ye to weep and to break mine 
heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die 
at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." 

Similar is the picture presented to us here. When he 
reached Miletus he sent for the elders of the Ephesian Church, 
in which he had labored for three years, and where he had 
seen the wonderful triumphs of the Gospel, and, knowing 
that he would probably see them no more, he recounted to 
them his manner of life — told them of the character of his 
ministry, and prophesied of the sufferings that awaited him. 
"Behold," said he, "I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, 
not knowing the things that shall befall me there : save that 
the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds 
and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, 
neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might fin- 
ish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received 
of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." 

The first thought which suggests itself in considering this 
passage is, that there is for every Christian a pathway marked 
out by Divine Providence. The apostle speaks here of his 
"course." He desired to "finish" his "course with joy;" 
indicating that, as in a race where men enter, there is a path- 
way in which they must keep before the goal is gained, so 
there was for him, and there is for every one of us, a path 
marked out of God in which we are to walk. That path is 
not a smooth and even path. Oftentimes great cares and per- 
plexities await us; trials and afflictions abide us. No one of 
us finds an open sea on which to sail and a calm sky overhead ; 
but storms and tempests are about us, clouds are oftentimes 
above, dangers beset us on every hand, and yet we are stead- 
ily to move on in the line which God has marked out for us. 

What may be the course of each individual is determined 
by the providential circumstances surrounding him. And 
when we consider man's position on earth, we shall perhaps 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 59 

be surprised to notice how little is within the circle of our 
choice. The great proportion of facts connected with us is 
determined of God, and he has marked out beyond our con- 
trol, beyond our power, the way in which we must go. As 
Jesus said in the prayer touching his apostles, " As thou hast 
sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into 
the world," while spoken primarily of Christian ministers, yet 
has a sense in which it is applicable to all Christians. We 
are sent of God into the world ; human life is a divine mis- 
sion ; each has his own field, each his own responsibility; but 
life is a mission from God. Consider that the age in which 
we live is not of our selection. The land in which we are 
born is not of our choice. The families in which we arise 
are selected of God. Our physical strength and stature, our 
mental powers, our tastes, our associations, our opportunities 
of improvement, the words we hear in childhood, the direc- 
tion given to our developing life, all these are not of our- 
selves, and when we ask why they should be such as they are, 
we can only answer, "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good 
in thy sight." 

And these circumstances hedge in as well as mark out the 
path in which we are to move. Not the same talents, not 
the same responsibilities, are for any number of us, but each 
Christian is to consider what God requires him to do, and he 
should feel that he is sent into the world to perform a special 
work, for the execution of which he is responsible. I cannot 
enlarge on the peculiarities and details of human work. If 
God has given a man, for instance, the spirit of poetry — if he 
has a sense of the beautiful — that something which touches 
all the springs of his nature when he beholds the morning 
blushing in the sky, and the streams, like silver threads, cours- 
ing down the mountain-side, and light and shadow following 
each other, let him utter the thoughts that God has given 
him, the "thoughts that breathe in words that burn." But 
if God has given him a poetic soul, it is that he may raise 
the world nearer to God, and woe to him who uses poetic 
power to taint the world with corruption, or to throw a moral 
blight over the minds of the young ! Has God given to the 



60 



SERMONS. 



voice a power of music ? Is there the strange fascination of 
song with which God endows some of us? Let such power 
be cultivated to its highest extent, but beware lest the voice 
should ever be a syren to lead downward to sin, instead of 
leading upward to association with the saints in light. And 
so with all the powers which God gives us. He marks for us 
our pathway, and he requires us to walk in it. 

Bat the next consideration is that, in pursuing this course, 
we should pursue it joyfully. The apostle desired to " finish 
his course with joy." 

One fact, which marks not only mankind in general, but in 
many instances the members of the Christian Church, is the 
spirit of complaint. Instead of doing the work that devolves 
upon us, we are wishing to fill the place of some one else. 
We imagine that some one has a smoother path, has fewer 
sorrows. My friends, we do not know the sorrows of others. 
We know our own heart-sorrows, but let me assure you that 
in the palaces of the great there are anxieties as well as in the 
cottages of the poor. If you enter the homes where plenty 
abounds, there is often discord ; and oftentimes the brow that 
is smoothed to smiles conceals a heart that aches. I am in- 
clined to think that there is no one of us, whatever may be his 
position in life, who has not at times a cup as full of sorrow 
as he is able to bear. It seems to be necessary that all men 
should be tried. We must learn distrust of ourselves that we 
may trust in God. We must feel that there is no abiding joy 
on earth that we may look for joy in heaven. God causes us 
so to be tried that we shall be compelled to let go to a great 
extent of the earthly, and to raise our hands to heaven as 
helpless childhood in looking to a father's guiding care. 

But while we have these sorrows meeting us frequently in 
life's journey, it is still possible to be joyful in the midst of 
them all. We should be joyful when we consider that we 
have no more trials to encounter than are needful for us. 
This is difficult for us, sometimes, to conceive, and still more 
difficult for us to feel; but as a father would never lay upon 
his son a heavier burden than the son is able to bear, so God 
never lays upon any of us sorrows greater than he sees can be 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 61 

made to culture our spirits and to prepare us for a higher tri- 
umph in glory. The deeper we go in the valley the higher 
God intends to raise us towards the mountain-top. God in- 
tends, as he sinks us in sorrow, to raise us in joy, and it is 
our privilege to rejoice evermore, and to know that all these 
trials are but blessings in another form. When a diamond is 
put into the lathe it might (if it were conscious) complain, 
but when its rough edges are cut, and from every angle and 
every part there sparkles out the glorious light, had it a voice 
it would then utter its thanks for that which gave it such 
power to shine. It is so with us. On earth we need polish- 
ing — many of us ; we must be put into the lathe ; severe afflic- 
tions are necessary for us. God knows how much polishing 
we require, and when the work is performed he will withhold 
his hand. 

And, again, you may think the pathway a severe one ; you 
are walking by the side of the marshes, and you hear the cry 
of wild beasts; and yet, when a hundred years are past, and 
you stand by the throne of your Saviour, you will see that 
this was your nearest pathway to heaven — that this was the 
very pathway necessary for you to take to reach the throne of 
God. Oh ! tell me, could the apostle speak to ns to-day, would 
he be sorry that he had fought with men as with wild beasts 
at Ephesus? No, he would rejoice, and say that it was the 
way in which God led him. And when your spirits reach the 
place where he is, you will see how all the way along a Father's 
hand hath led you, and you will be prepared to say he knew 
what was best for you. No man ever said an unkind word 
against you but that unkind word was the best for you. God 
intended you to be profited thereby, although " for the pres- 
ent no chastening is joyous, but grievous." Then, surely, in 
these considerations we may rejoice. Jesus went down into 
the vale of humiliation, but it was that we might ascend to 
the mountain-top of glory ; he drank the cup of sorrow that 
we might drink the cup of joy; and he, who sorrowed more 
than other men, now says to those who, through much tribu- 
lation, are advancing to the conquest of the world : "Rejoice 
evermore." "And again I say rejoice." The apostle deter- 



62 SERMONS. 

mined that, whatever difficulties might lie in the way, he 
would "finish his course with joy." If he were to go to 
prison, he would go singing praises unto God ; if he were to 
die, he would die rejoicing. He sang of glory and the Sav- 
iour's love. But the apostle had no higher reason for being 
joyful than you and I have. Thank God, we have the same 
Saviour, we have the same Holy Spirit, the same sanctifying 
power, and the same hope of the same heaven. 

The apostle desired not only to finish his course with joy, 
but "the ministry which he received of the Lord Jesus." 
And this expression intimates that the way of the minister 
differs from the ordinary way of life. A man may select an 
occupation as an attorney, a physician, a farmer, a merchant, 
being guided only by the providential indications around him. 
But before a man can enter the ministry he must not only have 
ordinary providential indications, he must have the conscious- 
ness that he is summoned by the Lord Jesus. Dr. Chalmers, 
when speaking of the call to the ministry, says that it involves 
two departments: there is the ordinary call and the extraordi- 
nary call. He makes the ordinary call to correspond with 
terms on which a man would select for himself any other oc- 
cupation ; the man feels anxious for the souls of men, he de- 
sires the work of the ministry, and he at once decides upon 
entering that peculiar life. But the extraordinary call is a 
conviction that God lays upon him that specific duty, and 
that, if he does not perform it, he will lose his own soul. For 
myself, I am free to say that I know nothing of this ordinary 
call. I think that the call to the ministry is at all times ex- 
traordinary, and I believe that it is one without which no man 
should enter the sacred desk, and which, having received, he 
should beware how he neglects. 

And now, it may be that some of my younger brethren 
have had doubts thrown over this; and they have been ask- 
ing: "Wherein consists this call to the ministry, and how 
shall we know that we do receive it of the Lord Jesus ?" I 
believe that this is a very important inquiry, and unless it be 
very clearly determined in the mind, we never can have the 
power which we ought to possess. If a man is not sure that 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 63 

God calls him, lie will go to his work hesitatingly ; but if he 
goes with a conviction that God has sent him, that he must 
go, that he must speak to the people, whether they will hear 
or whether they will forbear, then he will be likely to speak 
" with the demonstration of the Spirit and with power." 

What, then, are the marks of the call to the ministry? 
I answer, I think there is no one single mark sufficient of 
itself to determine the inquiring mind ; but, as in nature, God 
gives correspondences by the union of which we come to clear 
conclusions, so, I think, also in the spiritual world there are 
certain correspondences by an examination of which we may 
ascertain the truth. For instance, we find a kind of trinity 
running all through nature. There is the visible object, there 
is the light as the medium, and there is the eye that God has 
fitted to receive the light. By these three things I discern 
outward nature. Again : there is the body that may vibrate, 
the air that may bear that vibration, and the ear that may re- 
ceive the vibration. So in relation to this call to the ministry j 
God gives a threefold testimony— namely, a conviction in our 
own hearts, a call from the Church of the living God, and the 
divine accompaniment of fruit. 

Now, as to the first element of persuasion in a man's heart 
that he is called of God — namely, that of " conviction " — there 
must be for the basis of such conviction a clear Christian ex- 
perience. Only he who has been at the cross himself is well 
qualified to lead others thither. Only he who has bowed his 
own heart in obedience to the voice of Christ is likely suc- 
cessfully to call others to the blessed Saviour. And yet I 
am not sure whether or not sometimes, especially when one 
has had Christian training and been brought up in a Chris- 
tian household, there is not resting upon the mind a con- 
viction that the ministry is likely to be one's pathway in 
life, if the heart is given to God. And I think that young 
men hesitate sometimes about entering into a clear Chris- 
tian experience because of that. They withhold themselves 
from God lest they be called to go out into the ministry. 
This is not a common fact, but I have found instances of 
it. I have known young men to cross mountains and oceans 



Q4: SERMONS. 

with the feeling in their hearts that God designed them 
for the ministry (for the Spirit was working in them), but 
they had no wish to enter it ; nevertheless, wherever they 
went, God has followed them either with blessing or judg- 
ment, until he has bowed their hearts in obedience to his will. 

Again : sometimes God has put it into the hearts of parents 
to set apart their children for the ministry of the Word. I 
do not mean by this that it is right of parents to select minis- 
ters, but I do think it is right of parents to offer their children 
to God. And I think that, frequently, where God designs to 
mark out a young man for the ministry, he may incline father 
and mother, in the very first moments of the being of that 
child, to offer him up on his altar. Time is nothing with 
him. Twenty or thirty years in advance is nothing with 
him. He knows what are his own purposes, and he sees 
how suitably to combine them all. Sometimes the case of 
Esther has occurred to my mind. God saw that his people 
were in danger; that there would be an edict for their de- 
struction ; and now, away in a distant province, there is born 
a little girl, in a humble family, and when the parents look 
upon her they see that she is unusually lovely ; she has a face 
of faultless beaut}', a form of faultless symmetry. They love 
her as their beautiful child, and they fancy that she has been 
given to them simply as a blessing. Little did they think 
that twenty years or so would pass, and that the complexion, 
the features, the form of that little girl would be used of God 
to change the condition of a whole province. Yet it was so. 
God was preparing the agency, and in due time he accom- 
plished the end. 

So oftentimes in the ministry. God works in the hearts of 
parents to consecrate their little ones to Christ. God works 
in the hearts of these little ones in early youth, and the faith 
that dwelt in the grandmother Lois and the mother Eunice 
springs up in young Timothy, and "from a child he knows 
the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make him wise unto 
salvation." And yet there are parents who are afraid to con- 
secrate their children to the Lord ; afraid that their sons may 
be ministers or missionaries ; afraid that their children may 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 65 

be called into the service of God ; and, alas ! alas ! I have 
known parents who have turned away the hearts of childhood 
from holy things, and have been the means of giving their 
sons to a drunkard's grave and a drunkard's hell, rather than 
give them to the ministry of the Word. And yet, if there be 
parents who design their sons for the ministry, who ask God 
to honor them by giving them sons for the ministry, let me 
say to you, if the thought is in your heart, never tell the boy 
of it. Keep it to yourself. Pray for him, train him, give 
him facilities for education ; but let him not for one moment 
fancy that you have such a thought in your heart. It will be 
time enough when God shall speak to him. 

If you will allow me, I will here speak for a moment of 
myself. Deprived of a father's care in early infancy, trained 
by a widowed mother, I grew to a young man's years, " when 
it pleased God to reveal his Son in me." I felt that I must 
try to do something for a perishing world ; but how to leave 
a widowed mother I knew not. The burden grew heavier 
and heavier upon my soul, until only death and ruin seemed 
to stare me in the face. A moment came when I felt I must 
tell my mother, although I thought it would break her heart. 
I told her, with much trembling, that I believed God had 
called me to the work of the ministry. A tear stole down 
her cheek, a heavenly smile came upon her face, and she said : 
"My son, I have been expecting this ever since you were 
born !" And yet my mother had never uttered a word of it. 
But she told me then that my dying father and herself had 
consecrated me to God, in the hope that I might live to be a 
minister of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, pa- 
rents, give your children to God. 

The young man whom God designs for the ministry may 
have a suggestion thrown suddenly into his mind that he is 
called to preach, or it may be a conviction that shall grow 
gradually ; but, whether it comes suddenly or grows up grad- 
ually in his mind, it takes this form : he feels that he must 
talk to his fellow-men about the salvation of their souls. And 
yet difficulties are in his way. The pressure upon him be- 
comes heavier. Sometimes he finds himself walking in the 



QQ SERMONS. 

fields and wringing Lis hands; sometimes sleep will depart 
from his eyelids, and he will feel a pressure on his heart, and 
that pressure will increase until he either gives himself up to 
the ministry of the Word, or he transgresses God's will, and 
thrusts himself out into the pleasures and follies of the world. 
But when the conviction springs up the young man asks him- 
self : " How shall I know that this is not one of my mere- 
ly human impulses?" We have many impulses. There is 
the thought of fame. There have been eloquent and fa- 
mous ministers. May not the young man have an ambition 
to be like them ? There is the thought of popular applause. 
He may think that the ministry is a pleasant calling in life. 
How shall he know that this impulse is from God ? 

I answer: One test is, if that which springs up in his own 
heart be from God, it comes not in accordance with his previ- 
ous plans. He had intended to be an attorney, or a physician, 
or a man of business, having the control of a great factory, or of 
ships at sea; fame and honor glanced before him; he had his 
plans marked out in life, then the suggestion came: "You 
must go and preach the gospel !" It came like a shadow over 
his life ; it seemed like a blight upon his prospects, an aban- 
doning of the world, a changing of the whole course of action 
which he had outlined for himself. When this is the case, it 
evidently comes not of the man himself; it does not spring 
up in accordance with his views ; it is not in harmony with 
his prayers; it is contrary to his wishes, and herein is one 
test. 

Another test is this : If the conviction be strong, and it 
leads him to be more devoted to God, the presumption then 
is that it comes from God. If the nearer he draws to the 
world the weaker becomes his conviction, but the nearer he 
draws to God the stronger becomes his conviction, the prob- 
ability is that this call comes from God. 

There is a third test : The way seems to be exceedingly dif- 
ficult. It is one of God's modes of operation to lead his people 
where it seems impossible for them to go. He leads them to 
the Bed Sea, and with mountains on either hand he tells them 
to go forward. It seems impossible, and yet it is only by go- 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 67 

ing forward that they can get to the mountain of God. He 
leads them into the wilderness in which there appear no means 
of sustenance, and yet bread is given to them, and their water 
is sure. So it often is when God calls one to the work of the 
ministry. The young man feels that it is impossible for him to 
preach. How can he ? He pleads with God as Moses did. I 
cannot preach, I have no power to preach. He knows his help- 
lessness, and yet his heart urges him to go and preach God's 
Word. He says : " Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore 
nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant. I am slow of 
speech, and of a slow tongue. Let this man preach." But 
the voice comes : " What is that to thee ? follow thou me." 
The voice still sounds, " go ;" yet how can he go ? How can 
he leave an aged father? How can he bid farewell to an 
aged mother ? Yet the voice says, " Go forward." It is in 
the midst of these difficulties that God is honored by his 
stepping forward ; and he is led onward, until by and by, 
assured of God's presence, he ceases to shrink from the di- 
vine will. 

But now, if there be a young man here who has not entered 
the ministry, but who has these throbbings of heart, he may 
be ready to ask me this morning: "What shall I do?" I 
answer, keep it to yourself. Tell the secret to no one. Do 
not ask the Church to give you license, nor go after men beg- 
ging them to put you into the pulpit that you may preach. 
As long as God speaks to your heart privately, let your heart 
answer privately to God. Say : " Speak, Lord, for thy servant 
heareth." But begin training, get ready for your work, meet 
classes, lead prayer-meetings, go out into cabins, visit the sick, 
do works of mercy ; prepare yourself — read, study, think, de- 
velop, and so make yourself ready for the work which lies 
before you ; but keep the secret in your own bosom. If God 
is to call you, he will speak to his Church about you. I never 
knew a man who was anxious to preach and troubled the Church 
for a license but I felt a conviction that God had not called 
him. If a man have all the ability of a Saul of Tarsus he 
will, if truly called of God, seek rather to hide himself than 
to put himself forward. 



68 SEKiMONS. 

This leads me to the second element of the call — the voice 
of the Church. When God designs a young man for the 
ministry, wherever he may be, he will touch the heart of the 
Church. The young man may try to keep the secret in his 
own bosom, but he cannot succeed. It will flash from. his 
eyes ; it will sound in the intonations of his voice ; it will come 
out in his gestures ; it will breathe in his spirit ; it will speak 
out in his prayers ; and one day, sooner or later — it may be 
just at the close of a prayer-meeting — an old servant of Christ 
will come to him and say: "Brother, has not God a work for 
you to do ?" He may be walking in the street, and some friend 
will come and take him by the arm, and say : "Brother, I think 
God has a work for you to do." And oh ! sometimes it goes 
through his soul like an arrow, and he is ready to cry out : 
" O mine enemy ! hast thou found me out ?" The Church 
calls him — she recognizes God's voice in his heart, and the 
work God has for him to do. Now, when the Church opens 
the way, let him obediently go forward, and if he is urged 
to preach, let him try, in the name of God. 

And yet, in our own convictions, we are liable to mistake, 
and the Church herself may make a mistake. We need some- 
thing that is unmistakable. When, then, you have had the 
conviction personally, and when, in obedience to the call of 
the Church, you have tried to preach, let me ask does the tear 
run down the cheek, does the sob break from the heart, does 
the stiff knee bow, is the sinner awakened, are there voices, 
saying, "Men and brethren, what must we do to be saved?" Is 
there converting power ? Is the Church built up ? If so, then 
God sets to his seal ; you may know that you are called of God. 
Talk of apostolical succession, I want to be in the succession 
of the apostles — the glorious succession that comes down from 
Jesus Christ ; but what the minister wants particularly is to 
have his diploma signed of God. I value the schools of men, 
but give me, as a minister, the handwriting of God, and let 
me be able to point to my converts, and say : " Here are my 
letters of commendation — they are living epistles, known and 
read of all men." Not until a man has fruits of his ministry 
has he indisputable evidence that he is called of God. And 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 69 

when he has this evidence, I think he has no need to fear. 
God lifts him up in the sight of men, sets him apart, gives 
him a commission, and sends him forth to speak the words of 
this life. Oh ! what a position to occupy ! To be selected of 
God to preach the gospel ! Brethren, we may be poor, we 
may have trials and sorrows here, but I would not change 
places with the president in his chair, or with the queen upon 
her throne. No, no. To be summoned of God to preach the 
Gospel — to be placed as Christ's representative here upon 
earth — is the highest and holiest vocation of man. 

And when one has received that ministry he is to " finish 
the ministry" — that is, he is to be careful to perform all 
the work of the ministry. This work the apostle intimates 
very beautifully in a few particulars, which I wish briefly to 
sketch. 

1. Personal example. He said to the elders of the Ephe- 
sian Church : " Ye know, from the first day I came into Asia, 
after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serv- 
ing the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears 
and temptations which befell me by the lying in wait of the 
Jews ; and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto 
you, but have showed you, and have taught you publicly and 
from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also 
to the Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our 
Lord Jesus Christ." The minister preaches by his own per- 
sonal example, and, without this, preaching is worthless. We 
may have the tongues of angels, but if we have not a holy 
life corresponding and testifying to the Gospel that we preach, 
we shall be of very little account. I am sorry to say that there 
are some (I trust that there are none such here ; I have met 
with them elsewhere) of whom it is said that " when they are 
in the pulpit, they ought never to come out ; and when they 
are out of the pulpit, they ought never to go in." Such men 
are not like the great apostle — they are not performing the 
work of the ministry. 

ISTow, a Christian minister should be a joyous man. He 
should have what Mr. Wesley calls the cheerfulness of faith. 
He should be cheerful because he has a knowledge of the 



70 SEKMONS. 

Gospel ; cheerful because lie feels that lie is divinely called ; 
cheerful because he goes and delivers a joyous message every- 
where. But at the same time he should be an example to the 
people in conversation, in purity, in charity, in meekness, in 
holiness. "We never shall be such ministers as we ought to 
be without the spotless example of a holy life. Oh ! how 
humble we should be ! " Serving the Lord with all humility 
of mind," patient and meek. Men may contradict us ; we 
should not be quick to reply — we should let them see that 
we have been with Jesus, that we have his meek and lowly 
mind ; and we should be so earnest for the salvation of 
others, wherever we go, that men can feel that it is not a 
profession merely, but that in the depths of our hearts we 
have an unconquerable yearning to bring every man and 
woman to Christ. 

2. There is, again, in this ministry, public service. " I kept 
back nothing that was profitable unto you." The minister 
must prepare himself for his duty ; he must be a studious man, 
a reading man ; he must be able, with all the helps he can get, 
to point out the way to the cross ; he must study the diver- 
sities of temperament; he must think of the wants of each; 
and he must vary his preaching according to circumstances. 
I don't think that the same kind of preaching is suited for all 
countries and for all ages. There are great waves of public 
opinion — we must watch them, and " when the enemy would 
come like a flood," we must be ready to co-operate with the 
Spirit of the Lord in lifting up a standard against him. We 
must study the various traits of our Lord's enemies. The 
enemies of the Gospel to-day are not like the enemies en- 
countered by our fathers. We have different foes to meet, 
and consequently, while the great outlines of truth are the 
same, yet, in our topics, in our modes of address, we must con- 
sider the circumstances of the audience, and the position in 
which they stand in respect to the evils that surround them. 
Many an excellent sermon is lost because it is not suited to 
the congregation. 

3. Not only is there this public ministration, there is pri- 
vate pastoral visitation. "I have taught you publicly and 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 71 

from house to house." Whatever may be your power in the 
pulpit, you will never succeed as you ought unless you visit 
from house to house. In the great moral warfare in which 
we are engaged we have not always to stand behind the army 
and throw out our cannon-balls — there comes a time when 
there is a hand-to-hand fight, when we must meet men face to 
face ; and if we are to succeed we must feel for them, mingle 
with them, and, whenever we meet with the young, we must 
drop them a word of encouragement. I know not how it is 
with my younger brethren, but my elder brethren will say 
that whatever they may or may not have accomplished by 
preaching, they have never visited their flocks, they have 
never sought to win young children to Christ, without some 
cheering indications of success. We fail in our mission if 
we fail in personal application ; and if we do not succeed in 
our more public ministrations, we must learn to " teach from 
house to house." 

4. The apostle makes mention of another way. He says : 
" Therefore watch, and remember that by the space of three 
years, I ceased not to warn every one night and day, with tears." 
Here is constant preaching, " night and day." Brethren, as 
ministers, we must study, we must read, we must write, to gain 
precision and accuracy ; a varied field opens before us ; and 
yet everything should bend to the ministry of the Word. 
We should be conversant with all knowledge, we should learn 
languages as far as possible, and master the secrets of science 
if we may ; we should understand all the mysteries of mind 
as far as we can, but remember the whole object of our prep- 
arations is to win souls for Christ. The moment we get 
away from that, that moment we are walking upon dangerous 
ground ; but the more we study with the view of constantly 
bringing all our labors to bear on that, the more we may count 
upon the blessings of God. The apostle " ceased not to warn 
every one night and day with tears." It is said sometimes to 
be unmanly to weep. It may be in view simply of dangers, 
but it is not unmanly to weep for the souls of the perishing. 
And it is not unmanly to weep when a dear friend lies upon the 
bed of death. If any of you have proved what it is to bid fare- 



72 SERMONS. 

well to a son in the strength of his manhood, or to see a love- 
ly daughter fade away like the rose touched by the unkindly 
frost, you surely know what it is to weep. But if we weep 
for dear ones whom God takes from us to carry them to his 
own home, we should weep for souls that are going to ruin. 
The old prophet cried : " Oh ! that my head were waters, and 
mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night 
for the slain of the daughter of my people !" And " Jesus 
wept." He w T ept at the grave of Lazarus; he wept over 
Jerusalem. And the minister of God has tears of compassion 
to shed in his earnest supplication to God, sometimes in the 
sanctuary, when his soul is burdened, and he sees men un- 
moved by the warnings and the promises and the hopes of 
the gospel. The great apostle, with all his learning and witli 
all his logic, wept; he "warned the people day and night 
with tears." Some of us may weep seldom. Tears come not 
readily to our eyes. Others may weep more easily. But the 
meaning of the passage is : Be in earnest, and let your ear- 
nestness be seen of men. Be in earnest, for souls are dying! 
Be in earnest, men are perishing! Be in earnest, there is a 
fire burning throughout the building, and. men are in it! Be 
in earnest — see ! it is spreading, and thousands are falling be- 
fore the consuming flames ! 

And yet this ministry has its difficulties. My young breth- 
ren, I know some of these which you will have to meet. 
These elder brethren have met them, and, in a measure, con- 
quered them, though they fight them still from day to day. 
You will have temptations within, you will have temptations 
without. You will be received unkindly when fraternal hearts 
ought to be open to you. You will struggle with poverty 
when your wants ought to be supplied. You will find sick- 
ness in your families, you will be depressed, and you will 
hardly know how to prepare for the pulpit; but be like the 
apostle, go forward and say : " None of these things move 
me." What if men receive you unkindly ; you go because 
you are called of God. You have a message for them, and 
the worse they are the more they need the message; and the 
less of the spirit of Christ they have the more of the spirit of 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 73 

Christ you should show them. Show them the beauty of ho- 
liness, and then "go forward." You may have hard appoint- 
ments, but what are your appointments compared with those 
of the apostle Paul ? What had he to meet with as he passed 
through Asia Minor? What about the mobs in Ephesus? 
What about the oppositions that awaited him everywhere? 
Think of his being bound and imprisoned, and his having 
death staring him in the face wherever he went ! But his 
great soul said, "None of these things move me." On he 
went preaching, and, I suppose, singing — for certainly he and 
Silas sang in the prison at night — working for God and work- 
ing for humanity everywhere, and hence he could say, " I take 
you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all 
men." What a declaration ! One of the saddest feelings I 
ever have is this, that if I had prepared myself better, and 
had preached with more of the Holy Ghost, and had lived a 
higher and holier life, I might have been the cause of saving 
some one who left my congregation unsaved. And herein 
is a fearful responsibility. A holy minister accomplishes 
more than one but partially holy, and the voice of God sounds 
in our ears, " Be ye holy, for I am holy." I sometimes say to 
myself, if I had always lived where eternal sunshine settles 
on the head — if I had lived above these clouds and mists — 
if my experience had been rich and ripe and deep at all times, 
how many poor souls might have been led to the cross that 
have not been led there! And then, I say, if there be one 
cause of deficiency in me that I might have remedied, will 
not the blood of men be found in my skirts ? How can I say, 
"I am pure from the blood of all men?" My dear young 
ministers, keep this in your minds. All the good which you 
could possibly do by being wholly consecrated to God, and 
which you fail to do now because you fail of entering into 
such a relation to him, all that will be sin resting upon 
you. Why not, then, seek this higher life? Why not seek 
these grand results ? Why not dwell in the upper sanctuary ? 
I speak to you, I speak to myself, for all these thoughts come 
home to my own heart with their fearful power, and with 
them the sense of my responsibility to God. Oh ! when I 



74 SERMONS. 

come to die, it would be"(if I could say it) the proudest word 
which could escape my lips, looking upon the record of my 
life, "Pure from the blood of all men." 

I have thought, again and again, of the apostle and his heroic 
utterance, "None of these things move me." And I have 
sometimes fancied that, in vision, I could follow him. I see 
him yonder. He has been preaching in the city, and they 
carry him out without the walls. The missiles come thick and 
fast upon him ; he falls bruised and wounded, and his ene- 
mies leave him for dead. I go to his side, I lift him up, I 
wipe the blood away from his face. I. look as he catches his 
breath heavily ; and now he opens his eyes. I say to him, 
" Paul, you had better give up preaching. They will kill 
you. Don't go to the next city; don't take up your next ap- 
pointment; don't go round your circuit." Just as soon as he 
is able to recover breath he speaks. I bend my ear to his 
lips, and he whispers out these words : " None of these things 
move me." I follow him to another city, and after the ser- 
mon they arrest him. The robe is taken off his shoulders ; a 
strong man lays on the lash — " forty stripes save one " — upon 
his shoulders, and the blood trickles down over his garments, 
and he is left in a mangled state. I go to him; I place the 
robe upon his shoulders, and putting my arm affectionately 
round his neck, I say to him, "Paul, it is time to quit preach- 
ing ; you are almost dead, and they will kill you ;" but the 
first words he speaks are, "None of these things move me." 
And again I follow him. He has been " a night and a day in 
the deep." I see the water dripping from his hair ; he is ex- 
hausted, and apparently lifeless. I get close by his side, and 
listen for the first words that fall from his lips, and the third 
time I hear the same utterance, " None of these things move 
me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might 
finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have re- 
ceived of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of 
God." What a hero ! Bonds, imprisonment, scourging, dy- 
ing itself, cannot change his undaunted spirit. And, last of 
all, I follow him to the prison in Eome. He has stood the 
second time before Nero. The day of his execution is near. 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 75 

He writes his last letter to Timothy; and now, if there is a 
misgiving in his heart, it will come out. He is writing to 
the clearest friend he ever had — his own son in the gospel — 
and he is giving him a charge ; and, if he is tired, if he is 
sad, and dissatisfied with the life he has lived, he will say so. 
But what does he say? I come near to him — I look over his 
shoulder, and I discern what he is writing. Does he say, " Tim- 
othy, give up ; you will die ; I am sorry that I came to Rome. 
I am going to be put to death?" Is that it? No. I watch 
as from his pen flow the words, " I have fought a good fight, 
I have finished my course ; henceforth there is laid up for me 
a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, 
shall give me at that day ; and not to me only, but to all them 
that love his appearing." Thank God ! he did " finish his 
course with joy " — there was not a misgiving, not a cloud ; he 
was able to die, having the world beneath his feet. Thank 
God, that martyr spirit is still in the Church. It used to be in 
old England ; and there were men who were not afraid to burn 
for Christ, and I believe that the same spirit is as much in the 
Church to-day. I know that there are men about me who are 
moral heroes ; they have been to Fiji, and there, not counting 
their lives dear unto themselves, they have preached the gos- 
pel of Christ. Leaving those islands of the sea, and passing 
over land, they have taken their lives in their hands, and gone 
to the ends of the earth. Thank God, " none of these things 
move them." Here is this Wesleyan body ; the centre here, 
the circumference all over the world. Its missionaries are in 
France, Germany, Italy, South and West Africa, Ceylon, 
India, China. Going to America, we find the missionaries of 
the cross there, and, animated by the same spirit, they can 
say, notwithstanding all the dangers and difficulties they have 
to encounter, " None of these things move us." Thank God 
for such a ministry ! May he raise up others who shall carry 
on this work until time shall end. My brethren, I congratu- 
late you on what God has enabled you to do. This martyr- 
spirit has kept you. You are not in bonds and imprisonment, 
but you have what is perhaps harder to bear. There are men 
here who have suffered fully as much as martyrs suffered. 



76 SERMONS. 

Deep down in the heart they have had cares and anxieties and 
sorrows as much as men coiild endure ; but they have gone 
on, and God has worked with them and through them until 
the barren place has become a fruitful field, and the wilder- 
ness has rejoiced and blossomed as the rose ; and I, who have 
come from the ends of the earth, am here to testify that, 
through their labors and the labors of others, the same work 
that spreads in England is spreading all over the world. In 
America it has not confined itself to the eastern shore. It- 
has climbed the Alleghany Mountains, spread across the Con- 
tinent, ascended the Rocky Mountains, gone on to the Pacific 
coast, and swept round to China, where you and we are shak- 
ing hands; and, thank God, Methodism is exerting such power 
in China as is waking the empire from its slumbers ; that em- 
pire, which has been sleeping for centuries, is now aroused by 
the voice of singing and praise to our Lord Jesus Christ. 

One thought more, and I have done. My young brethren, 
this gospel is a testifying gospel. Paul said, " that I might 
finish the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, 
to testify the gospel of the grace of God." A barrister mak- 
ing his argument in court is one thing; the man on the wit- 
ness-stand is quite another. A case may be argued well, and 
lost for want of testimony. Our ministry is a testifying min- 
istry. We urge men to repent ; we tell them that, if they 
come to God, he will forgive them, and, in confirmation of 
what we say, we testify that God, for Christ's sake, has for- 
given us. We tell them that there is a fulness of redemption 
for them in Christ Jesus, and we testify that " the blood of Je- 
sus Christ cleanseth us from all sin." At every step we testify 
of the gospel that we have found it true. What power ! A 
man might have argued with the Jews until his head was 
gray, but wdien one stood up and said, " One thing I know, 
that whereas I was blind now I see ;" that was an argument 
which they could not meet. And so it is. We may preach 
delightfully, but can we testify ? Paul testified. When he 
stood before the Roman governors, he did not preach merely, 
he told his experience. He knew that what had touched his 
own heart would touch the hearts of others. My brethren, 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 77 

let us go in like manner and testify to the great truths of the 
gospel. Then our people shall hear, and they will believe. 
Oh ! that the young men who stand here may have a dou- 
ble portion of the spirit of their fathers ! I thank God there 
may be as successful preaching still as there ever was in this 
wide world. Did thousands one day bow beneath the Word ? 
Thousands may bow some other day. God has given me as 
much of the gospel to preach as he ever gave to Paul or 
Peter. I cannot preach it as Paul preached it or as Peter 
preached it, but it is the same gospel, the same glorious gos- 
pel, and my heart can testify, even as Paul did, that Jesus is 
my Saviour, and I can say, " God forbid that I should glory, 
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world 
is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." 

And now, Christian brethren, I shall not have an opportu- 
nity of addressing you again. We have been talking of the 
responsibilities of ministers. For a moment I turn to you. 
If it is their dufy to imperil their lives, if need be, that they 
may preach the gospel, it is your duty to hear the gospel. 
If they are sent to save, it is your duty to be saved. Have 
you obeyed their voice \ Have you given your hearts to the 
Lord ? Young men in the prime and beauty of life, come to 
the cross of Christ. Come one, come all. Thank God there 
is room at the cross to-day. Thousands have come, but they 
have not obstructed the way. Thousands have come, but the 
path is still open. Multitudes are on the way, but there is 
room for you and me to walk to the cross. Come just as you 
are, and his blood will wash your soul from sin. I scarcely 
know how to part with you. I shall meet you another day, 
but not here. I shall meet you where there shall be a con- 
gregation not only filling this floor and these galleries, but a 
gallery that shall stretch away where multiplied millions are 
waiting by the throne of God ! And I shall be there. And 
you will be there. Will you be on the right hand or on the 
left? Will you be singing the song of Moses and the Lamb, 
or will you be weeping and wailing and gnashing your teeth % 
May God save me and my congregation, and may ministers and 
people meet together among the redeemed of God ! Amen ! 



V. 

Christian Mttj. 



CHRISTIAN UNITY. 

" And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them ; that they 
may be one, even as we are one." — John xvii. 22. 

The subject suggested by these words is Christian oneness 
and the means by which it may be obtained. No more im- 
portant theme can come before the Church, and its impor- 
tance may be seen from several considerations: First, the 
place which it occupied in the thoughts of the Saviour. When 
a father is leaving the world, and gathers his children about 
his dying bed, nothing of small moment occupies his thoughts ; 
but, looking far into the future, endeavoring to raise the veil 
that hides the unseen from view, he asks for them God's 
greatest blessings. So the Saviour, about to leave his disci- 
ples, making this inimitable prayer in their behalf, implores 
for them the richest blessings which God can give. And at 
this hour he prays, not that they may be exceedingly numer- 
ous in the world, though that would be desirable. He does 
not pray that God may bestow upon them great wealth, 
though that would be the means of enabling them to do good. 
He does not pray that God may place in their hands the pow- 
ers of the world, though these might enable them to wield a 
more extensive influence; nor does he pray that they may 
be saved from persecution, from imprisonment and torture, 
though that might be wished for ; but, passing by all these, he 
lifts up his heart to God, and asks that they may be preserved 
from evil; that they may be kept even as he had kept them ; 
and then said he," that they may be one, even as we are one." 
This was the greatest blessing which the Redeemer could in- 
voke upon the Church — that they all might be one after the 
pattern of the oneness of the Father and the Son: "I in them, 
and Thou in me." 

Again, the importance of this oneness is seen from the fact 

6 



S2 SERMONS. 

that Christ has made the conversion of the world to be condi- 
tioned upon its attainment. He says, " That they all may be 
one ; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also 
may be one in us : that the world may believe that thou hast 
sent me." Here it is very plainly taught that the world will 
never fully believe in the mission of Christ until Christians 
become one. When we look over the world and see the vice 
which prevails, the confusion and disorder which abound; 
when we see so many going to ruin that the gates of perdition 
seem to be wide open and crowds flowing in thereat; when our 
hearts are moved by all this, do we ever remember that they 
go thither because the Church has not fulfilled its mission ? 
They do not believe on Christ because we, who are Christians, 
are not one in Christ. If we wish the world to be converted, 
if we wish all strife and confusion to cease, if we would have 
this world of ours to be the suburb of heaven, then we must 
learn this lesson of Christian oneness. Then shall the world 
believe that the Father sent his Son, Jesus Christ. 

Not only was it made a condition of the conversion of the 
world, but it seems to be made a condition of the fulness of 
Christian experience. It is added, "I in them, and thou in 
me, that they may be made perfect in one ; and that the world 
may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as 
thou hast loved me." ISTot only is this oneness, then, a con- 
dition of the conversion of the world, but it is made a con- 
dition of perfectness, of Christian experience. It may be 
difficult for us at first view to understand why this is so; 
and yet it seems to me, when we look at the deceptions, 
the divisions, and the strifes that abound, and when we see 
how man is alienated from God, if those strifes could be re- 
moved, if men could learn to love each other, to work for 
each other, to try to do each other good of every possible sort, 
it would be evidence that God had actually come among them, 
and that the love of God, which passeth knowledge, was 
spread abroad, taking their hearts captive, and filling them 
with peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Looking at the ex- 
tent of God's love, we sometimes take into our hearts the 
thought that God loves us, but do we ever reach the thought 



CHRISTIAN UNITY. 83 

that he loves us even as he loved Christ? If you and I could 
feel in our hearts that' as much as God loved his own Son, his 
only begotten Son, so much he loves us, with what joy would 
it inspire us ! Would not the clouds be parted above us in 
earth's most trying hours ? Would we not ascend the mount 
of transfiguration wrapped in thoughts of light and beauty 
and glory? Would we not dwell as in the presence of God 
forever? Oh, how much does the Father love the Son ? The 
glory of all worlds is given him ; he is the express image of 
God's person ; he is the brightness of his glory; he is the ful- 
ness of his joy; in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead 
bodily; and yet he loves us even as he loves his own Son; 
and the depth of this love, the consciousness of it, will never 
come to our hearts in its fulness until we attain the spirit of 
Christian unity. 

I call your attention, next, to the nature of this oneness, 
and then to the importance of its attainment. And first, as 
to its nature, I may remark that, whatever it may be, we may 
expect it to be in perfect harmony with God's work through- 
out his world. The revelations of God in his word are like 
the revelations in his works, and what we find God displaying 
in his works we may expect him to display also in the move- 
ments of his Spirit. As we proceed further to look at the 
nature of this unity, we may distinguish two kinds of unity 
which are manifest in the world about us. There is what is 
termed unity of law, or principle. There is what is termed 
oneness, or uniformity of manifestation. The unity for which 
our Saviour prays is a oneness of principle, not uniformity in 
manifestation. I infer this to be the case from what I see of 
the works of God. When I survey the heavens which he has 
made, I discern that one law governs all bodies, whether they 
be great or small, whether they be near or remote. All mat- 
ter — the globe, the drops of water, the particles that float in 
the air, are alike subject to the law of attraction. God reigns 
everywhere by one law, governing all nature ; and yet, un- 
der this law, how vast the variety — variety in magnitude, in 
form, in appearance ! If I descend from the heavens to the 
earth and look at his works there, I find that they are com- 



84 SERMONS. 

posed of the primal elements ; and yet what a vast variety — 
variety in crystal, in shape, in color ; variety in rock, in struct- 
ure, in strength, in position ! If I look at vegetable nature I 
see the same law. There is one law of birth, youth, maturity, 
and decay; and yet how immense the variety! From the 
flower that just peers above the bosom of its mother earth and 
fades away in an hour, to the tree that stands upon the moun- 
tain-side and nestles in safety amid the storms, there is one 
great law of vegetable life ; but how immense the variety of 
manifestation ! Earth would lose its beauty and its loveliness 
were all uniformity here — were all shrubs of one size, all 
flowers of one size and color, and all trees of one general ap- 
pearance and shape. 

Again, I look at animal nature, and the same principle is 
seen. There is one law T , and yet how endless the variety! 
The bird that flies in the air, the beast that walks the earth, 
the fish that swims in the sea, are all governed by one law of 
life — and yet how endless the modifications ! If I look at the 
human form I see that the human countenance is essentially 
the same ; the same features are there, but what an endless 
variety — a variety that creates individuality ! So that in the 
human form there is an endless modification of feature such 
as gives individual recognition. And if I pass to man's inter- 
nal nature, do I not find the same elements there? There 
are memory, perception, reason, imagination, and powers of 
abstraction and generalization in all of us, and yet they have 
different relations to each other. One man has a stronger 
memory than I have, though I know what memory means; 
another has stronger reasoning powers; and a third has an im- 
agination that soars to the heavens, while mine may pass along 
the circuits of the earth — and yet God has given to me all 
these faculties ; and it is the difference in the proportions of 
them that constitutes individuality of endowment and adapts 
men to spheres which God has appointed them to fill. They 
become poets, statesmen, scholars, merchants — each in the 
sphere appointed him. We are not the same in our tastes. 
One may choose the mountain, another the hill-side; one 
loves commerce, another farming; one the mechanic arts, 



CHRISTIAN UNITY. 85 

and another pursues professional life ; and so God liatli made 
us to differ in all these, while the nature and laws of mind, of 
taste, and of emotion are essentially the same. We see this 
law of unity and variety displayed in our feelings. We know 
what are hope and fear — what are love and hatred ; and yet 
how we differ in their manifestation ! Joyful tidings come 
to us, and one man will sit, apparently unmoved ; in another 
you will see the light sparkling in the eye, while another will 
rise from his seat and give vent to his excitement in a loud 
huzzah. I have gone, as you have, to the house of mourning 
when some friend has been stricken down ; we have stood 
beside the dear one on whose face we look for the last time 
— and how different will be the expression of our feelings ! 
I have seen the widow standing sometimes with no tear in 
her eye, with scarcely an emotion pictured on her face ; she 
seemed to be a statue before the corpse of her husband, but 
oh ! there was a tire within ; her very soul was consumed, 
while tears refused to flow; there was such anguish as life 
could not long endure. Another seems to manifest almost 
frantic passion ; tears, exclamations, and sighs come to her 
relief, and yet the feelings may not be stronger. God has 
given us different modes of manifestation, and so he has 
made us in these respects unlike. Now if this be the fact 
in all God's works — if it is so in nature, in the regions of 
thought and imagination, when we come to the heart we must 
expect to find the working of the same law ; there will be 
oneness of principle, but there can be within that an almost 
endless diversity of manifestation. 

I not only look for such diversity from these general con- 
siderations, but, in the second place, from the nature of the 
subject itself. Religion is a matter partly of belief. Now, 
men cannot think precisely alike. The Church endeavored, 
in some of the ages, to make the creed in all its minutise a 
standard of religious life, and to this the most rigorous ad- 
herence was required ; but it is impossible for men to believe 
alike in all the niceties of opinion. The reason may be found 
in the fact that there is a difference in men's minds ; but sup- 
pose all minds to be essentially the same, there will be a dif- 



86 SERMONS. 

ference, arising from the circumstances that attend our lives 
and the early development of our faculties. 

Take two children of equal mental power and the same 
mental tastes and place them under different conditions, and 
how unlike will be their development ! One of them opens 
his eyes in a family circle where all is beauty and order; the 
father is joyous; love and method are displayed in his move- 
ments. The mother is happy, and when the infant first looks 
up into that mother's face it sees peacef ulness and tranquillity. 
The brothers and sisters of the family are in harmony ; there 
are flowers in the yard ; there is the music of the birds in the 
early hours, and song in the family circle. The child's heart 
is expanded under these circumstances, and it feels that this 
is a joyful world in which it has its being. It learns to love 
that world, and begins to study it ; there is that which draws 
out the youthful heart, and it is led from nature up to nature's 
God. The other comes into the world under different cir- 
cumstances. There is anger on the father's brow ; there is 
anguish in the mother's face; there is discord in the family; 
there is no beauty or loveliness to cast its halo around ; no 
sweet flower, or song of bird, is there ; but all is drear, deso- 
late, and sad ; and when the young mind looks out and takes 
a picture of its surroundings, there is that which makes it al- 
most hate the world in which it has its being. The child 
becomes a misanthrope, and there is a tinge given to its feel- 
ings in childhood's hours, for time and for eternity, that few 
of us, as parents, comprehend. 

Again, it is impossible for us all to think precisely alike, be- 
cause of the limited character of thought. There are some 
thoughts which we all share. I take up an apple or an 
orange; I see its form, and it makes its impression on my 
mind ; you take it up and the same figure is presented to you. 
But let us go out and stand on the sea-shore and take a wide 
view of the ocean, or let some distant mountain rise up be- 
fore us; you and I never saw and never can see them pre- 
cisely alike ; it may be you do not stand exactly where I 
stand ; or you see a little more of one side than I do; or a 
little more light falls upon your side than on mine. !No 



CHKISTIAN UNITY. 87 

two men at the same moment ever got the same view, or ever 
can get the same view, of the same mountain or landscape. 
There will be much similarity, but there will be some variety. 
So is it with truth. I may take the principles of arithmetic 
or geography, and when I compass them fully and look at 
them they are precisely the same, and minds cannot differ in 
relation to them. I take some geometrical figure, the square 
or the triangle, I observe its lines ; they are the same in all 
possible positions, and we all coincide in respect to them ; but 
there are other objects that, like the mountain or the sea, rise 
too high, or swell to too large a compass for the mind to em- 
brace them fully. I take great questions pertaining to gov- 
ernment, questions which reach beyond the present age, be- 
yond the land in which I live, and which shall affect other 
races and other climes. These become so vast that though 
we stand together and view them, you may see a little more 
of one side and I of the other, and we shall necessarily differ 
in our judgments. I take the great subjects pertaining to the 
government of God — his sovereignty over the universe, his 
eternity of existence — and they become so vast that we cannot 
comprehend them ; we see but parts, while the rest is lost in 
the shadows of light; forming impressions from these, we 
shall not all see precisely alike. 

God has revealed the outlines of truth ; the great princi- 
ples stand out without shade in his word, and these princi- 
ples of faith we embrace because they are distinctly revealed ; 
but there are other truths which we may speculate upon, 
which we may to a certain extent accept, but with respect to 
which we cannot all hold the same belief ; hence there can- 
not be, from the nature of things, entire uniformity of faith. 
We must be satisfied to stand by the chief doctrines and the 
great principles, and embrace them firmly, and then allow 
Christian liberty in all non-essential matters. We must say : 
" If thy heart be as my heart, give me thy hand." 

So it will be in usages ; there will be some that we may not 
exactly relish. We have the same leading outlines of Chris- 
tian worship in all the churches. We read the same word, 
sing songs of praises before God, and join in acts of adora- 



88 SERMONS. 

tion and prayer, and yet there may be some particulars in 

which we shall differ, according to our tastes, even in congre- 
gations of the same communion. In all these differences we 
must have an enlarged Christian charity. If, then, unity is 
not to be found in religious creeds, if it is not to be found in 
religious usage, if there is not the same manifestation of re- 
ligious emotion as of other emotions, we may ask in what 
does this Christian oneness consist % I think we shall see 
more plainly in what it consists if we look at the means 
which God has revealed for its attainment. He has not left 
us to struggle after this oneness without giving us the method 
of reaching it : " The glory which thou gavest me, 'I have 
given them, that they may be one, even as we are one." We 
are to be one by having the glory which the Father gave 
Christ and which Christ gives us ; he gives his glory that we 
may be one. What is the glory which the Father gave Christ 
and which Christ gives to us to make us one ? Christ did 
not receive divinity ; he was one with the Father before the 
foundation of the world. £Tor could he impart divinity to 
man ; that was his own essential nature, and is incommuni- 
cable. When we think of the glory which the Father gave 
the Son and which the Son gives to us, we must think of 
something wholly apart from the divinity of Christ. Again, 
it is not connected with the sacrificial death of Christ. He 
trod the wine-press alone; he looked and there was none to 
help ; his own right arm brought salvation ; he made a suffi- 
cient oblation for the sins of the whole world; it needs no 
additional offering. The glory which the Father gave to 
Christ, and which Christ gives to us, is not connected with his 
sufferings for sin. 

If we separate from Christ all thought of his divinity, and 
all thought of his dying to save the world, we shall then have 
reserved the glory which lie received from the Father, and 
which he bestows on us ; and I ask, what is his glory apart 
from his divinity, and apart from his making an atonement 
for sin ? I answer, the glory of doing good, the glory of ele- 
vating fallen men, the glory of being a pattern, a teacher, a 
laborer, a sufferer for us. Then the work to which we are 



CHRISTIAN UNITY. 89 

called, the oneness to which we are to aspire, must be a one- 
ness in the endeavor to do good. If we look a little more 
fully at this glory which the Father gave the Son, we shall see 
in it three or four particulars. There is, first, the glory of holy 
living. The earth had never seen a pattern of the beauty of 
holy living in perfection before the coming of Christ. He 
came to live without sin, to bring heaven near to earth. When 
he came, and was the babe of Bethlehem, heaven seemed to 
draw near to earth ; the windows of light were opened 
and a rapturous throng of angels came down and sang the 
new song in the hearing of the shepherds : " Glory to God 
in the highest; and on earth peace, good-will toward men." 
So, when Christ began his divine mission, when he was about 
to commence his work of preaching and teaching the peo- 
ple, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove while the multi- 
tudes were gathered around ; heaven came near to earth, and 
God proclaimed : " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am 
well pleased." And while he was teaching on the earth, 
yonder mountain-top was bathed in light; Elias came down; 
earth was brought near to heaven, for Christ was showing 
forth the beauty of holy living upon the earth. Now, in holy 
living there is everywhere a bringing near of heaven. We 
have the glory of living holy lives, and the Church is to be 
one in that respect. Our conversation, saith the Apostle, is 
in heaven — our "words" is not the meaning of the term "con- 
versation " there; but our whole deportment, or, as one has 
rendered it, "our citizenship is in heaven." We are dwellers 
of another land ; w T e are heirs of glory ; our possessions are 
on high ; our home is above ; our Father is there ; the hosts 
of the redeemed that have gone before us are there; our 
bliss is there; and as we go through the earth, keeping our 
garments unspotted, what a lesson we are to the world in 
which we live ? Thus Christ has given us this glory of holy 
living, of rising above the common spirit of worldly life, and 
dwelling quite on the verge of heaven. 

Again, there is the glory of teaching. Christ was the 
great teacher. See him on the mountain-side gathering mul- 
titudes around him of all conditions in life, the rich and the 



90 SERMONS. 

poor, the learned and the unlearned — those from the city 
and those from the country. The well and the sick crowd 
there — the gray-headed man just trembling on the verge of 
the tomb, and the little child borne in the mother's arms, all 
go there to hear the voice of the Saviour ; and he spake as 
man never spake. He revealed thoughts that never man had 
in his bosom, spoke words that seemed to be full of holy elo- 
quence, and yet spoke so simply and so directly that they 
came as words from heaven. He was the greatest of great 
teachers; he sought to reach all classes; he taught the large 
congregation in the city, he taught his disciples by the way- 
side ; he stopped to speak to the woman who sat at the mouth 
of the well of Samaria ; he spake to the blind, to the deaf, 
and the dumb. "We have the commission to teach in the name 
of Christ, and we have the glory of teaching. The Church 
is the pillar and the ground of the truth. We take child- 
hood and teach it; we teach the people when they come to 
hear us; and we invite them to draw near and hear the 
Word. Not only the minister but the Christian says, Come 
and I will tell what the Lord has done for my soul. 

ISTot only is there the glory of teaching, but there is the 
glory of benevolent work in various kinds. Christ did not 
confine himself to teaching, but he labored for man.. When 
man was hungry he fed him with bread from heaven ; when 
he was sick he came to the bedside, and taking the dying 
hand in his, life flowed through the veins. He found the 
widowed mother in anguish because her son was dead; he 
stopped the procession, and bade the young man arise. 
When the sisters were weeping and without hope he came 
to the tomb, and though the brother had been sleeping four 
days, called him back from eternity to cheer their hearts. 
Thus he went through the earth. The leper had the foul 
spot removed and his flesh came again as the flesh of a little 
child ; the eye sealed in darkness beheld the light ; the ears 
that never had heard the vibrations of the outer world were 
unstopped ; men who were cripples even from the tenderest 
moments of infancy leaped and praised God. Thus where 
Christ went he cheered the heart ; he comforted the sorrow- 



CHRISTIAN UNITY. 91 

ing, he removed disease, he brought back the wanderers from 
God. This is the record of the life and this the glory he 
gives to you and me. " Tiie glory that thou gavest me I 
have given them." Christ passed from earth. Where shall 
the blind man find a sympathetic heart ? Where shall the 
suffering and disconsolate seek those who will cheer them ? 
Why, Christ left us in his stead, and gave us the glorious com- 
mission to go about doing good. His apostle said: "True 
religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this : 
to visit the widow and the fatherless in their affliction, and 
to keep himself unspotted from the world." Behold our 
mission ! Here are the poor to be comforted ! Here are the 
abandoned and outcast to be brought home ! The young man 
blind in sin needs us to carry to him the light of the gospel ; 
the deaf man needs to hear the voice of the Son of God, and 
the dead to awake and to live. This is our mission ; this is 
the glory which Christ gives to his Church on the earth. It 
is in that Church he lives and moves — " Lo, I am with you 
always." 

Why should it not be so ? He came from heaven to earth 
for this express purpose, and when wicked hands removed 
him from the world and he went in his power to dwell on 
high, he took humanity with him, and he bears the same lov- 
ing heart in his bosom. Whenever he sees a man going out 
in his spirit and wandering over the face of the earth he 
whispers from heaven, " Lo, I am with you." When men do 
the work of Christ, he comes down to walk and talk with 
them; their visions are sweet and their hearts rejoice in the 
presence and glory of God. But you tell me possibly that I 
mistake the meaning of this passage. The text says, "The 
glory thou gavest me." I have been talking of working, of 
holy living, of laboring, of teaching, and even of suffering ; 
but the text says, " The glory thou gavest me." You ask me 
further, supposing even that be glory, how can it unite men ? 
Let us look for a moment from whence this glory sprang. 

How do men acquire glory on earth? There are names 
that stand out on the page of history ; how did these names 
become glorious? Do we admire most the richest men of 



92 SERMONS. 

earth ? or the most learned ? or the brightest in intellect ? 
These are not the chiefs in our admiration. Men acquire 
glory on earth by doing and by sacrificing. What is it gives 
yonder general, as he returns with his conquering army, such 
glory? Why do fair hands wave their handkerchiefs in 
token of welcome? Why is the whole city moved to meet 
the hero? Not because he was at the head of the army 
merely, but because he offered his life, if need were, in his 
country's behalf. He dared to suffer; it is for suffering he 
is honored, and not for ease or wealth ; the glory comes from 
toiling, from endurance, from sacrifice. Why do you honor 
the great reformers — a Luther, a Calvin, a Zwingle, a Knox, 
a Wesley, and others ? Not because of endowments or posi- 
tion, but because they suffered and dared so much ; because 
they faced prisons, mobs, and death for the sake of doing good. 
Had it been for wealth that they worked, you would not have 
honored them. Men may try to pass over the frozen seas 
and torrid zones for wealth and no one cares ; but the heart 
glows with rapture towards those who show disinterested 
benevolence. If we would see the highest form of glory we 
must follow the apostles. Our minds fix on Paul, who suf- 
fered more than the rest. He was in labors more abundant, 
in perils of land, in perils of sea, stoned, imprisoned, cast out 
as dead — and yet, with the courage of a true Christian hero, 
crying out, even in the face of imprisonment and death itself, 
"None of these things move me; neither count I nay life 
dear unto myself, that I might finish my course with joy, and 
the ministry of the Lord Jesus." Last of all, the highest ex- 
emplification is found in our blessed Saviour, who came from 
heaven to earth, laying aside his crown and the homage of 
angels and of the spirits of the redeemed, to be the servant 
of servants. Oh, it is for this the angels shout his praise ; it 
is for this the redeemed shall cast their crowns before his 
feet ; it is for this when earth's history is wound up all crea- 
tion shall join in ascriptions of praise and glory unto the 
Lamb for ever and ever. Now glory comes by toil, and 
if we are to have glory we must toil and sacrifice for man. 
But you ask me, will this make union ? Look out on the 



CHRISTIAN UNITY. 93 

world and see how it works. Men love each other more 
when they stand united on the same great platform ; and 
even men who, a few months ago, were enemies become 
friends when they work for one great end. 

What is wanted is some platform so broad that all can 
stand upon it, some work so large that all may engage in it 
for all time ; then we shall find a way to make humanity one. 
Where is that work to be found ? Nowhere else but in the 
cross of Christ, the salvation of the whole world, the redemp- 
tion of every human being unto God. Why, here is a plat- 
form wide as creation. Every man is my brother — earth's 
darkest places become my neighborhood, and I am to work in 
my own especial sphere until this whole earth is brought 
home to God. Look at the results to be accomplished. There 
are children to be trained, there are wicked men to be re- 
claimed ; there are outcasts to be brought near to Jesus ; 
souls are perishing; men, women, and children are dying. 
We look out and see the harvest is great, but that the labor- 
ers are few. Now when we engage in this task our aim is 
to make this earth like heaven ; to bless every heart, to edu- 
cate every mind, and to reclaim every wanderer. This is 
the work God has given us to unite us in one. As we look 
through almost every household, is there not one dead in sin ? 
Is there not one wanderer? Is there not one somewhere who 
is far from God and in danger of eternal woe ? Up, ye men 
of Israel ! up, ye women of Christ, to save the ruined ! They 
are in your family circles; they are among your clearest 
friends. How can you rest in your beautiful churches? 
How can you rest in your tasteful houses? How can you be 
still under all your circumstances of position, when you can 
almost catch the wails of woe which are beginning to go up 
out of the deep and dark abyss ? Here is work for every one, 
and if we engage in it our hearts will be one. Where will 
there be time for envy, jealousy, and strife ? Where for dis- 
cord and evil-speaking, if we are trying to do good to every 
son and daughter of man ? With hearts filled with the love 
of God our souls will be lifted above the mountain-tops and 
the clouds, and, gazing at a clear sky, we shall behold the 



94 SERMONS. 

Saviour in all his majesty. Now here is the glory Christ 
gives us. " The glory thou gavest me, I have given them." 

Oh, what shall our joy be when we shall have a perfect 
union on high — when we shall, from the east and west, and 
the north and the south, sit down in our Father's kingdom 
forever, the fathers and mothers, the husbands and wives, 
the children and the grandchildren all triumphant, washed in 
atoning blood, redeemed through the blessed Saviour, glorious 
co-workers w T ith Christ, meeting in heaven, the work all done, 
the toil all accomplished, the world redeemed, humanity tri- 
umphant, the sons of men crowned before God, priests and 
kings to him forever ! Oh, what a blessed meeting that, 
when songs and praises shall fill the new temple of God ! 



VI. 



€§t §up[ tju ^mn nf M. 



THE GOSPEL THE POWEE OF GOD. 

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of 
God unto salvation to every one that belie veth ; to the Jew tirst, and also 
to the Greek." — Romans i. 16. 

The occasion of this peculiar form of expression appears to 
have been that some persons at Rome had conceived and ex- 
pressed the opinion that the apostle was ashamed to preach 
the gospel there. He had made several intimations that 
he would visit Rome, but circumstances had occurred which 
prevented him. As he says, he had been let, or hindered, 
hitherto, and because he had not succeeded in making his 
visit, they said : He can preach the Gospel in Asia Minor ; he 
can visit some of the cities in Greece ; he has passed into Ara- 
bia ; he has met men of other languages and of other coun- 
tries ; but he is afraid to visit Rome, the seat of power, the 
centre of the civilization and the refinement of earth. The 
apostle replies to this that he had desired to visit Rome, that 
he had been hindered, but, he adds, " I am debtor both to the 
Greeks, and- to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the un- 
wise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gos- 
pel to you that are at Rome also, for I am not ashamed of the 
gospel of Christ." He not only makes this general declaration 
that he is not ashamed of the gospel, but he gives the reason 
why ; for " it is the power of God unto salvation to every one 
that believeth." The Romans prided themselves upon their 
power; they worshipped power; it was deified among them. 
They boasted of the strength of their legions, that they were 
able to reach out their arms and embrace the distant parts of 
the earth. They had conquered northern Africa ; their ar- 
mies had swept over Europe ; they had entered Asia and pen- 
etrated to the valley of the Euphrates, and the Roman name 

7 



98 SERMONS. 

was a terror everywhere. The apostle seizes the very phrase 
most grateful to their ears, and declares that though they might 
represent the power of men, of armies, of refinement, and 
civilization, he was not ashamed of the gospel, for it was the 
power of God — a power exceeding that of the Roman empire ; 
a power that could meet it in conflict and triumph over it; 
a power destined to extend to the very ends of the earth ; a 
power to reach Jew or Greek, bond or free. 

Not only does he speak of it as the power of God as con- 
trasted with the power of man, but he points out the influ- 
ence of that power in its extension and comprehension. In 
its extension it is the power of God unto salvation. The 
Roman power was a power unto destruction for the overthrow 
of nations. Where their armies went gardens were made 
waste, cultivated fields became a wilderness, and flourishing 
cities sent up but columns of smoke, and sank into heaps of 
ashes. Where the Roman power extended there were the 
tears of the widow and the wails of the orphan. It was a 
power exercised for subjugation — a power connected with 
sorrow and suffering ; but the power of the gospel was for 
salvation. Where it should go the wilderness would blossom 
like the rose ; Lebanon would become a fruitful field ; the 
blind would receive their sight, and the deaf hear ; the poor 
among men would rejoice ; the tear would be wiped from the 
widow's eye, and the orphan's heart be comforted ; men would 
feel that they had a Father in heaven, and a Brother upon 
the throne of the universe ; it would be a message of glad 
tidings to all people, even to the ends of the earth. It would 
extend to the salvation of the soul from sin and from fear; 
the terror of death would be withdrawn ; and man, who all 
his lifetime is in bondage to fear of death, would rise exult- 
ant and be able to say : " O death ! where is thy sting ? O 
grave ! where is thy victory ?" The sinner, through this Gos- 
pel, would have all his stains washed away and the heart made 
pure ; the man manacled and in bondage to his passions 
would become a freeman ; the man under the dominion of 
lust would be elevated ; men freed from passion's sway would 
be able to rise to the dignity of manhood, and the soul, washed 



THE GOSPEL THE POWER OF GOD. 99 

and redeemed here on earth, would be prepared for compan- 
ionship with the angels of God. This gospel claims to be 
the power of God unto salvation in this world, and in the 
world to come. The fear of death being gone here, and the 
man triumphant in the last hour, rises to be eternally at 
home with his Father and his God. If there be such a sal- 
vation, it can be nothing less than God's power. Philoso- 
phy had failed to accomplish it; reason was not able to point 
out to man the way to gain it ; learning had failed to set the 
soul of man free, to lift the veil and show him the glories of 
another world, but the gospel coming to him was in this re- 
spect the power of God. 

But not only did its extension reach through soul, body, 
and spirit, through time and eternity, but in its comprehen- 
sion it embraced every son and daughter of Adam. It is the 
power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to 
the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Now, the Roman em- 
pire claimed universal dominion, but it failed to exercise it. 
There was a boundary beyond which its armies could not go ; 
they reached the borders of Asia, but the distant table-lands 
they never gained. Over some valleys they had passed, 
but there were mountain heights they had never climbed ; 
they had crossed the Danube, and penetrated among wild 
German tribes, but here and there they were driven back, and 
had been obliged to entrench themselves in forts and garri- 
sons. They had failed to carry their arms northward ; they 
had, indeed, touched the borders of England, but had not 
thoroughly conquered that old island. They had skirted Af- 
rica, but its vast interior they had never entered. Rome, 
then so powerful, so far from realizing its dream of univer- 
sal government, was about to lose its distant provinces, and 
by and by become contracted in its sphere. But the Gospel 
claimed to be the power of God unto salvation, unto every 
one that believeth. Its proclamation was to go, not merely 
where Roman armies had gone, but to reach the north and 
the south poles, to bound over the table-lands of China, to 
scale the heights of the Himalaya mountains, to penetrate 
into Japan, to sweep over Africa, southern as well as north- 



100 SERMONS. 

era, and to knock even at the gates of Gibraltar, stimulating 
Spain to send out its ships to discover a new world that the 
gospel of salvation might be preached to every man on the 
face of the earth. It was to reach the savage as well as the 
civilized ; it would take the Greek, with his disquisitions, 
higher than ever he had reached before, and yet would stoop 
down to the poor savage in his nakedness, and, casting out 
the devils within him, would present him to God clothed 
and in his right mind. The cross of Christ, rising above 
the eagle of the Caesars, above all power and dominion on 
earth, would become a rallying-point to which all eyes should 
be directed; and as yonder sun, shining in the heavens, im- 
presses his image on every little brook, and on every crystal 
fountain, as his light is reflected from every tree and flower 
and shrub, so the gospel, the glory of God from the face 
of Jesus Christ, should throw its radiance over every human 
being, north and south, east and west, until the glorious image 
of the Son of God be impressed on every heart. Wise men 
and philosophers should bow down before this gospel ; poor 
widows, in their lonely cottages, should hear it and be made 
glad; old men trembling on the verge of the grave should 
lift their dying eyes to the cross, and behold beyond it a 
home in heaven ; and little prattling children by the mother's 
knee should hear of a Father in heaven, and their little hearts 
should swell with celestial joy. A gospel for the old and for 
the young, for the rich and for the poor, for the learned and 
for the unlearned. Thanks be to God, it is the power of God 
unto salvation to every one that believeth. 

Such a system has in it the elements of beanty, of gran- 
deur, and of glory, and the apostle might well say that he was 
not ashamed to preach the gospel at Rome also. Had they 
historians at Rome ? He could meet them with a history far 
older than theirs. Not dating from the founding of their 
city alone, he could lift the curtain and show them the 
founding of the universe, and call their eyes to witness the 
scene when the morning stars sang together, and the sons of 
God shouted for joy. Had they poetry ? He had poetry old- 
er still : the songs of a David, the triumphant strains of a 



THE GOSPEL THE POWER OF GOD. 101 

Deborah, the outbursts of a Moses and a Miriam — songs of 
praise and joy in which the whole universe might join. He 
was not ashamed, then, to preach the gospel at Rome. 

But very possibly the inquiry may arise in some minds, if 
the gospel be a system of power, the power of God, wherein 
does this power reside? I answer, in the first place, the 
power of the gospel resides partly in the thoughts of the 
gospel. But it may be said, in reply, power is visible in its 
exhibitions of itself. We talk of the power of the storm 
as it sweeps over the earth, the power of the whirlwind, 
of the hurricane, before which strong trees are prostrated 
and cities are overwhelmed. We talk of the power of the 
ocean's billows, which dash upon the earth, and beneath the 
shock of which frail vessels go down. We speak of the pow- 
er of the earthquake when the land swings, cities rock, and 
buildings fall ; of the power of the lightning's flash, before 
which nothing can stand. We talk of the fierceness of the 
shock of armies on the battle-field, when whole legions meet 
face to face. These are examples of power. Can there be 
power in thought — the simple action of a mind? At first 
it might seem that there cannot ; and yet, if we reflect, shall 
we not find that power chiefly resides in thought ? This 
frame of mine can accomplish much. My arm may be strong, 
and it may be able to wield a blow before which the forest- 
tree shall fall, or it may break in pieces the flinty rock ; and 
yet what is it that gives to this frame its power but thought ? 
Take away this thinking something from me, this power of 
will, and my frame is valueless ; the arm hangs lifeless by 
iny side. And in the clash of armies, it is the thought of 
the general which has led to victory. Calmly he has stood 
on some high place, viewed the battle-field, and given direc- 
tions, and the shock of regiments is but his thought embodied 
and his plan carried out. There is no wild chance or confu- 
sion there, but all is arranged by mind. ISTo wonder that the 
stranger said, as Napoleon passed : " There are forty thou- 
sand men wrapped up in that brain." He had power by 
thought to direct his armies, and whirl multiplied legions on 
the battle-field. I stand before a painting, and I admire it. 



102 SERMONS. 

What is it gives it its beauty ? Not the colors on the canvas, 
not the size of the canvas, not the shape or form of the fig- 
ures represented there, but the thought that was in the mind 
of the artist, the beauty of the conception which burned in 
his bosom. I enter a manufactory, and the forge-hammer 
rises and falls, or the thousand spindles are in motion, the 
shuttles are flying to and fro, and the machinery seems in- 
stinct with life, and yet it is all the product of thought ; 
one single brain had conceived it all before it came into 
shape. 

Nay, if I go further, I shall be able to say that all pow- 
er resides in thought. If I pass through secondary causes, 
there is no other power in the universe. For there was a 
time when there were no planets moving around the sun, 
no stars in the firmament, no earth ; no exhibitions of force 
in tempest, whirlwind, earthquake, armies, or lightning's flash. 
There was a time when there existed only the great and eter- 
nal uncreated Spirit. Then thought was in the bosom of Je- 
hovah, then he planned this universe. He spake, and it was 
done; he commanded, and it stood fast. And as I look 
at all the exhibitions of creative skill in the worlds, I only 
see the thoughts of God, if I may express it reverently, solid- 
ified and materialized. Planets that move in regular orbits 
are but the expression of his purpose. So that thought is 
the great power of the universe; and if such power be 
in thought, what power may dwell in the thoughts of the 
gospel ? 

But, again, not only is it possible that power shall reside 
herein, but the thoughts of the gospel are just such as 
tend to give elevation to the human soul. I do not un- 
dervalue the influence of other thoughts. Literature does 
much to expand the intellect, science to 'enrich and strength- 
en it, and art to beautify and elevate it. There is grand- 
eur in all these, but there is this defect in them, that they 
may become materialistic in their character. Sometimes we 
express surprise that men who study science, the loftiest sci- 
ences, tend to materialistic opinions. I am not surprised 
at it, for the simple reason that all their studies lead them 



THE GOSPEL THE POWER OF GOD. 103 

only to forms of things, and their thoughts terminate on 
created objects. It is well to study these sciences; but, af- 
ter all, they are related merely to bodies. We have a two- 
fold nature — the body and the spirit. By my body I am kin 
to all the earth, to all created matter. The flower and the 
shrub are related to me in their outward organization ; the 
star, the sun, the comet, every created being is brother to 
this frame of mine, because it is composed of matter, and 
this frame is of matter. Science connects me with this ma- 
terial relationship, and I do well to study it. But where is 
there food and development for this thinking, this spiritual, 
this eternal part of me? I must look for it in the im- 
material and spiritual, and just where science leaves me, 
having carried me, if I may use the phrase, to the bound- 
aries of created being — there the great thoughts of the gos- 
pel pick me up. They are addressed to my soul, and they 
give me ideas of eternity, infinity, immensity, omnipotence, 
omniscience, purity, holiness. The lessons of the gospel give 
expansion from their character ; they have dropped from 
heaven to fill my heart and raise me heavenward. I think 
of the invisible, the eternal, the angelic, the spiritual, and I 
soar away from these earthly scenes, and my soul rises to 
communion with the pure spirits about the throne of God ; 
and, rising with that native tendency which God has put in 
my soul, I will not be satisfied until I ascend above spirit, 
angel, created seraph and cherub, and my heart has com- 
munion with the great and eternal Jehovah. These are the 
thoughts that give elevation to the human spirit. But are 
these the thoughts of the Gospel ? I answer, they are the 
very first of revelation. 

You open books of science and they tell you of matter, of 
the world, of planetary systems, even of mental phenomena, 
yet all shown through physical manifestations ; but I open 
the book of God, and the first sentence is : " In the be- 
ginning God created the heavens and the earth." What 
conceptions are these! "In the beginning!" Let the mind 
travel back through secondary causes, associated influences, 
and accompanying circumstances, and I go back, back, back. 



104: SERMONS. 

back, traversing the generations and the myriads of ages, 
if need be, until at last I reach the "beginning." Where 
was it % when was it ? On my mind goes, and grasps the ori- 
gin of things, if I am able to scan this deep mystery of the 
beginning and all the categories connected with it; and my 
mind takes hold of the transcendental question, at preseift ex- 
ercising the greatest thinkers on earth. Thus, at the very 
opening of the volume, the mind is thrown amid the sublim- 
est problems. " In the beginning, God " — I am thus brought 
before the eternal Spirit ; the worlds around are of no mo- 
ment ; there my thought stands alone as in the presence of 
the great First Thought, having omnipotence and omnis- 
cience. Thus brought before God, gazing on his glory, the 
very influence of his presence is to change me from glory to 
glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. You take your young 
men and send them to teachers, and the teacher, by his 
thoughts, elevates their minds. They need such associations, 
companionship, and intelligence ; but where shall they go to 
have such influence exerted upon them as when the soul is 
brought into the presence of the uncreated Jehovah? Then 
think of the work of creation. The ancient philosophers in- 
quired : " Is matter eternal, or is it created ?" Revelation 
solves the problem at once and shows me this great First 
Cause creating the heavens and the earth, and I stand where 
the angels stood ; I hear the great Deity uttering his word, 
and bodying forth those worlds which move through space 
for thousands of years, not missing a hair's-breadth of the 
point to which they are sent : 

"Forever singing, as they shine, 
The hand that made them is divine." 

Not only are these thoughts such as to elevate our minds, 
but I look at those which are more particularly connected 
with the gospel ; that, for instance, of the Fatherhood of 
God. This great God thus revealed, from eternity to eter- 
nity, the concentration of all power, filling all immensity, 
having all agencies in his hand, able to create worlds and to 
annihilate them— this great God is my Father, an everlasting 



THE GOSPEL THE POWER OF GOD. 105 

Father, a Father who loves me, who is never wearied with me ; 
a Father whose ear bends to hear my prayer and my cry, 
whose eye can see in the darkness and in sorrow ; and when 
this idea comes home to my heart, must it not elevate my 
soul ? Some poor boy has said many a time, " If my father 
was able to help me, he would do it ;" and when I have heard 
a cry of distress, when I have seen a lad upon his dying bed 
suffering', looking up into his father's eye, he has seemed to 
me to say in his heart : " If my father could help me, he 
would; if he could save me, he would." But the Christian 
has no doubt of this kind. His Father can help; he has all 
power, all authority, all dominion, and he can make all things 
work together for good to them that love him. I may be an 
orphan boy on earth, homeless, friendless, comfortless; but, 
thank God, the gospel shows me I have a Father, rich, com- 
passionate, and bountiful, watching, guiding, and trying me, 
and when my faith is perfected he will give me all my heart 
desires, and more than eye hath seen, or ear heard, or hath 
entered into the heart of man to conceive. Other fathers 
may grow weary and vexed, may turn their sons away, and 
may not listen to their cry ; but our Father is an everlasting 
Father; he has been a Father from the beginning, and he 
will be a Father down to the end of ages. 

Then, again, the gospel brings to me the idea of the brother- 
hood of Christ. Jesus came from heaven to earth for the 
purpose of showing me how omnipotent power might be om- 
nipotent love ; how this great Father loved me as he loved his 
own Son ; how that Son came down and clothed himself in 
humanity, looked through eyes like mine on the world, tasted 
through lips like mine, felt with a heart like mine, suffered 
pangs like those I feel, was wearied, sorrowful, and hungry, 
and was touched with all the feeling of my infirmity, yet 
without sin. He came down to stand by my side that my 
soul might go out towards him, and that I might feel I 
have one in heaven who sympathizes with me. Brother, 
you and I are tempted ; you and I are weak. You some- 
times say your case is peculiar, unlike any one else's ; that 
you have difficulties no one else has to encounter. I tell vou 



106 SERMONS. 

there is One in heaven who was in all points tempted as you 
are, and in that he himself was tempted, he knoweth how 
to succor them that are tempted. He becomes our brother, 
and loves us. How much % To give us worlds ? That would 
have been easy ; he could have created worlds to enrich us, 
had that been all that was needed to save us from wrath and 
eternal death. He did not create worlds, but he gave himself. 
What more could we ask % He cries out, in the sight of angels 
and of men, " What could I have done for my vineyard more 
than I have done?" Oh! ye sons of men, what could Jesus 
do to show his love for humanity that he did not do ? 

Then, again, there is revealed to us the power that comes 
through Jesus to triumph over affliction and death. There is 
no key to affliction but a key that can unlock eternity also. 
This world has no compensation, but when we can take in an- 
other world, then there may be compensation. I can fancy if 
a grain of wheat had intelligence and a soul, and found itself 
buried in the cold, damp earth of spring, without light and 
heat, it might say, " Why am I thus ? It is terrible to be un- 
derground, terrible to be in the dark. I am likely to decay." 
But in a few weeks the sprout is evolved, the blade has spread 
out, the stalk has expanded, the flowers are clad in beauty, the 
ripe grain is on the ear, and then there is the answer. Par- 
tial darkness and sorrow, if I might use the phrase, preceded 
growth, expansion, beauty, and fruit. So it may be with us. 
It seems to be God's order that night precedes the day, sorrow 
the joy, darkness the light. You may be in the valley, but 
God has a mountain-top for you ; and I believe it is true in all 
lands, the deeper the valley the higher the mountain-peak. I 
believe it is true in all experience also, the deeper the sorrow 
the richer the joy. Christ's sorrows were greater than human 
sorrows, and his glory is greater than human glory. And 
when the revelator saw some bright spirits under the throne, 
and the question was asked, "Who are they up so high, who 
are just under the throne, and beside the fountain of glory"?" 
the answer was, " These are they which came out of great 
tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white 
in the blood of the Lamb." Afflictions, then, become full of 



THE GOSPEL THE POWER OF GOD. 107 

meaning, and to many a heart is realized the truth, " Our 
light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a 
far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Christian 
brother, you and I can go down a little more comfortably into 
the valley, amid shadows and darkness, if in the midst of it 
we can get a glimpse of the mountain-top, all radiant in light. 
Jesus gives the victory; and when the last hour comes — the 
darkness of death and the grave — it is but the moment of intro- 
duction to everlasting life. I have thought of a soul just re- 
leased from the body ; I have thought of poor Lazarus at the 
rich man's gate, the dogs licking his sores; he went into the 
depths of sorrow, closed his eyes, the last quiver passed over 
the frame, and men said, " The poor beggar is dead." That 
moment angels received his spirit, bore it away, and Abraham 
received the poor beggar in his bosom. Lazarus, from the rich 
man's gate to Abraham's bosom. Ah ! here on earth we have 
been tempted and assailed many a time ; we have stumbled 
and risen, and we have sometimes said, "I shall fall by my 
enemy yet ;" something has whispered, 

"There is a heaven in yonder skies, 
A heaven where pleasure never dies ; 
A heaven I sometimes hope to see, 
And then I fear 'tis not for me." 

But when the last conflict is over, and the soul enters the 
paradise of God, methinks I hear it exclaim, as it gets near the 
throne, " Safe at home at last ; the enemy is below me ; earth, 
temptations, sorrows, and death are left behind. I have risen 
beyond the grave ; home at last." 

Now, such are some of the thoughts of the gospel. "Who can 
conceive of what shall be among angels and redeemed spirits ? 
Here I have a feeble body ; some things I see, and yet only 
through little nerves that a grain of wheat may close; some 
things I hear, and yet, although the universe is full of music, 
I only hear a little of it through two small nerves. But, let 
the body break, the cage go to pieces, the bird fly away, and 
the soul plume its wings because there is nought to restrain 
it ; let me be all eye, all ear, all feeling ; let my soul expand, 
and I seem in thought to touch the boundaries of the universe. 



108 SERMONS. 

I shall be as the angels; thanks be to God ! I shall be more 
than the angels, for I shall come nearer to God than they are. 
I will cast my crown at the Redeemer's feet and sing, " Unto 
him that loved me and gave himself for me (a phrase the an- 
gels cannot use), unto him be glory, power, and dominion for- 
ever and ever." 

But the power of the gospel resides not merely in its 
thoughts, but in the spirit which is indissolubly connected 
with the thoughts. How that spirit is connected with them 
I cannot say, but God has seen fit to connect a spiritual 
life with the words which the Lord Jesus Christ has ut- 
tered ; so that they make an impression on the heart and 
conscience and the whole inner being that no other language 
makes. That spirit works in the universe unseen, and yet 
touches the hearts of the children of men. Sometimes by 
night upon the bed he brings to mind a passage of Scripture. 
Jesus said, " When the Comforter comes, he shall bring all 
things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto 
you." Sometimes, lying down in sorrow, we wake up with a 
sweet passage in our minds ; we scarcely know whence it 
came; no doubt it was from the stores of memory — but the 
Spirit took it, and made it life and power to our hearts. I 
remember well one impression made upon myself. I was 
lying on the coast of Asia Minor, sick, far from home and 
family, and the disease was such that it seemed to be ques- 
tionable for a time whether my body could resist its se- 
verity. One night, after a little slumber, I woke up, and 
a passage of the twenty-third Psalm was in my heart as it 
never had been before — "He restoreth my soul." It mur- 
mured within me, and, whether I half slept or was fully 
awake, all that night it was repeating itself, " He restoreth 
my soul." I do not know why or how it was, but the dis- 
ease gave way, and God raised me up again. As the same 
passage comes up in memory — "He restoreth my soul" — 
there rests upon me something of the sweetness which came 
to that bed of illness, when I was far away. Have you had 
such passages come to your heart ? Oh ! there have been sen- 
tences that seemed, when you read the Bible, to stand out in 



THE GOSPEL THE POWER OF GOD. 109 

larger type, words that seemed to be addressed to you ; you 
felt as if they had a tongue that said, " Thou art the man I" 
God's Spirit brings them, in some strange way, home directly 
to the conscience, and there comes a spiritual power with 
them. 

ZSTow, I may illustrate this in a simple way. I take a grain 
of wheat, and my friend, who is a chemist, analyzes it for me. 
He tells me that grain has just so much carbon and hydrogen, 
and just so much coloring-matter and other substances. He 
weighs them all accurately, and I ask him to make a grain of 
wheat for me. He takes the same weight of carbon, of hydro- 
gen, of coloring-matter, and of all the other materials ; he re- 
composes the grain of wheat. I take the two grains in my 
hand — the grain of natural wheat and this one — they look the 
same, weigh the same, have precisely the same form, and I 
cannot tell them apart. I plant them ; the natural grain 
sprouts, but on the other grain may fall the sunlight and 
dews of a thousand years. There is no sprout — and why % 
The one has life, and the other has not. What is the differ- 
ence? The chemist found no difference; he could not find 
the principle of life which God put there invisibly. All the 
chemist found he replaced ; but there was no life ; he could 
not give that. Now, it is so with the Word of God. I read 
there the same letters that are in the books of science and phi- 
losophy ; I put them together in sentences and paragraphs, 
just as I would arrange the words of Xenophon, Plato, or 
some other philosopher. When I read other men's words, 
the thought may charm my intellect ; but when I read the 
words of the Bible they come to my heart with power and 
life. Jesus says, " The words that I speak unto you, they are 
spirit and they are life." Thank God for the spirit that is in 
the gospel and the power that is indissolubly connected with 
the words which the Lord Jesus Christ spoke in the hearing 
of men ! And when that spirit is connected with the word, 
what power may there not be ! A spirit unseen can trans- 
form the heart. When Jesus says, "Thy sins, which are 
many, are all forgiven thee," the words are the same as 
though I said them ; and yet, when Jesus speaks them, the 



HO SERMONS. 

sin all flies away, and the conscience is washed. Jesus says, 
" Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and 
I will give you rest ;" and when he speaks the words there 
springs up in the souls of all who come to him a sweet sense 
of repose. Ye who came to the cross of Christ, y e who trust- 
ed in Jesus, felt life spring up within. There was power in 
the words of Christ, for they were spirit and they were life. 
And who can estimate their force ? Give a man the Spirit of 
God in his heart, and what limit is there to his power ? You 
say you have a hard heart. I know you have, but the Spirit 
of Christ can soften it. You have a peculiar nature, but the 
Almighty Spirit can change that peculiar nature. There is 
power to take away your sin, to chain the tiger in your soul, 
and to overcome your passions and appetites. A young man 
may have drunk until he has fallen into the gutter and is 
ready to go to perdition, and yet, if he will listen to the words 
of Jesus, there will come a power that shall transform his 
nature and make him pure and spotless. 

You have seen, probably, your little child strain its fingers 
trying to push up the latch, and, failing, try again. You 
came behind it unseen, and just gently put your finger be- 
neath its elbow, raised its hand a little higher; the latch flew 
up, and the door opened. The little child laughed, and felt 
that it had opened the door; but it was your power applied 
almost unconsciously to its hand. And if my arm tries to 
perform some work that God wants to be done, and he touch- 
es it by the finger of his omnipotence, the closed door will 
open, the great work will be done. If I try, weak as I am, 
to build a church, and exert myself, God Almighty, who has 
all the treasure in his hand, can touch my hand, if it is neces- 
sary to do so, and it shall be filled with silver and gold, for 
all are his. The power of God, once joined to humanity, 
how much can be accomplished ! Now, such is the power of 
the Gospel which, through Christ, is preached unto us. 

I must not dwell longer on this subject, interesting though 
it be. My closing word shall simply be an urgent appeal to 
you, men and brethren, to avail yourselves of this mighty 
power of the Gospel. You are here this morning, some of 



THE GOSPEL THE POWER OF GOD. HI 

you, troubled and perplexed, chained and enfeebled, by a 
nature sinful and polluted. Will you get free? Will you 
win the victory % You may, if the power of God helps you. 
Is that power ready for you ? God says, " Now is the day of 
salvation ; now is the time when that power can be given." 
Look at the electric fluid ; it is unseen, and yet it is all through 
the world. God's Spirit is more widely diffused than that. 
There may be a place where electricity is not present, but 
there is no place where God's Spirit is not — in secret, in pub- 
lic, at home and abroad ; and, thanks be to God, he is in this 
congregation of his people to-day. Oh, sinner, fellow-travel- 
ler to the bar of God, wherever you are, whoever you are, all 
that you need to make you happy on earth and an heir of 
God in heaven is offered you in the Gospel of his Son. There 
is salvation for every one of you, and I pray that every one 
who is here this day may be a child of God by faith in Christ 
Jesus. May you realize this power of the Gospel to be abun- 
dant for every good word and work ! 



VII. 

Cjjrist's Wnxte ijie life nf Bietjjn&i0tn. 



CHRIST'S WORDS THE LIFE OF METHODISM.* 

" The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."— 
John vi. 63. 

To the Jews Jesus was a mystery. He was a man like 
other men. Until thirty years of age lie lived in the midst of 
them a son of toil. "When he appeared as a teacher they said, 
"Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called 
Mary ?" Yet his words were strange words ; the common 
people heard him gladly. At his voice diseases fled, and the 
winds and the seas obeyed him. Soon after this sentence 
was uttered, having healed many of the sick, he had, with 
five loaves and two lishes, fed live thousand men, besides 
women and children, and the same night the disciples had 
seen him walking on the billows of the sea of Galilee. 

The next day many of those who had been fed followed 
him across the sea to Capernaum ; but, discerning their 
thoughts, he said to them, " Ye seek me, not because ye saw 
the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were 
filled." Leading them from the natural to the spiritual, he 
said, " I am the bread of life : he that cometh to me, shall 
never hunger; and he that believeth on me, shall never 
thirst." Then were uttered the most remarkable sentences 
that ever dropped from the Saviour's lips, " Except ye eat the 
flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life 
in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath 
eternal life ; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my 
flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." 'Not un- 
derstanding these terms as figurative, the people murmured, 
and the disciples were perplexed. Jesus explained himself by 

* Preached at the opening of the Methodist (Ecumenical Conference, Lon- 
don, 1881. 



116 SERMONS. 

saying, " It is the spirit that quicken eth ; the flesh profiteth 
nothing : the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and 
they are life ;" or, as the Revised Version reads, " The words 
that I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life." As if 
foreseeing that the literal use of them might, in the ages to 
come, lead to the error of transubstantiation, he distinctly de- 
clared, "The flesh profiteth nothing," meaning, "If ye could 
eat my flesh, it could be of no service to you; it is only the 
spiritual that can purify and save." In the holy communion, 
however, the precious symbols of the body and blood of Christ 
teach us how truly and how really Christ does give himself 
by faith to our hearts. 

The same mystery which perplexed the Jews still perplexes 
men. Neither reason nor philosophy can clearly explain how 
the divine and the human can be blended. I think this is one 
reason why we never are fully satisfied with any painting 
representing the blessed Saviour. We know he was human, 
we know also that he was divine, and we long to see some in- 
dication of that divine manifesting itself in the features or in 
the expression. The old masters, evidently feeling this want, 
painted a halo or radiance around his head, but no such halo 
was visible to the eye. In his appearance he was human, and 
nothing more. The old prophet who had named him "Won- 
derful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, 
and The Prince of Peace," had also said, " He hath no form 
nor comeliness, and when we shall see him there is no beauty 
that w T e should desire him." It is no marvel that when at 
the simple word of such a one the demoniac came to his right 
mind, the multitude exclaimed, " What a word is this." 

Taking the expression in its widest significance, let us con- 
sider how the words of Jesus are " spirit and life." 

1. The words of Christ pertain to and reveal the spiritual 
and eternal. Spirit and life are closely related to each other. 
The spirit originates, life perpetuates. Words, strictly speak- 
ing, cannot be spirit. But they represent, or manifest. Fig- 
urative expressions are found in all languages, and they give 
conciseness and force. Especially was this the case in Orient- 
al languages. Thus, " The Lord is a sun and a shield." " Un- 



CHRIST'S WORDS THE LIFE OF METHODISM. H7 

der the shadow of his wings shalt thou trust." Christ says, 
" I am the good Shepherd," " I am the vine, ye are the 
branches." So his words are spirit and life. The -words of 
man express his thoughts. They form what is termed his 
style. They reveal to some extent the inward being. How 
easy is it by a few sentences to detect the style of Johnson, 
or Macaulay, or Carlyle ! The w T ords of Christ disclose to us 
his spirit of wisdom and of love. He reveals to us the Fa- 
ther, who brings us into contact with the invisible and the eter- 
nal. He brings life and immortality to light in his gospel. 
"These are written," says St. John, "that ye might believe 
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and that, believing, 
ye might have life through his name." 

Yaluable as unquestionably are the works of literature, 
science, and art, Christ's words pertain to none of these. 
They are of another and higher realm. They do not teach 
science, but they give light and life to man that he may pur- 
sue the most profound investigations. They give impulse and 
power to the mind which God has bestowed on man, and to 
which he has made all material knowledge possible. Hence, 
under the shadow of the cross, and under that shadow alone, 
flourish literary and scientific institutions of the highest char- 
acter. Only in lands where the words of Christ give spirit 
and life do we find the grandest discoveries and the most use- 
ful inventions. Only where God is revealed do men success- 
fully pursue the investigations of those laws which he has 
impressed on the works of his hands. 

2. The words of Christ are accompanied by an unseen 
spiritual power, which is indissolubly joined with them, and 
thus they become spirit and life. How the spiritual can be 
joined to the material we cannot explain. We cannot by ex- 
periment in science discover those hidden chains. But we 
have analogies in nature all around us. Where are the cords 
which bind this earth to the sun, or that hold the moon to this 
earth? What is the gravitation that controls all the grosser 
substances ? What is it the loadstone imparts by its mysterious 
touch to the needle, which makes it our safe guide through 
darkness and storm ? We can see results, but we cannot look 



118 SERMONS. 

deeply into nature. What we perceive is that visible objects 
are actuated by invisible forces. So the words of Christ have a 
hidden power. They are like other words. They sound, are 
spelled, and printed as other words. But God has joined with 
them a spirit and life which affect the heart of man. He 
gives to his own word an accompaniment of wonderful en- 
erg} 7 . He is himself present in his word, and its only limit is 
his own grand design. 

3. The power of this word is seen in the material universe. 
Says the Psalmist, "By the word of the Lord were the 
heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his 
mouth." "He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and 
it stood fast." The apostle says, " The worlds were framed 
by the word of God, and the things which are seen were not 
made of things which do appear." Who can estimate the mag- 
nitude of creation ? Our solar system, vast as it is, is but a 
speck in the firmament; other stars are larger than our sun, 
and probably around them roll other worlds larger than ours, 
but which, in the immense distance, are so small they cannot 
be seen. The domain of the visible creation extends as our 
vision enlarges. Telescopes carry us far away. l^Tebulge become 
worlds, star-dust becomes clusters of systems. When we fancy 
we have seen all, every now and then bursts out of the darkness 
one of those eccentric-orbed comets, to blaze on our horizon a 
few days, and then pass away to distances unmeasured and 
unknown. Think of all this as the product of a word, and 
who can estimate its power ? The ancients fancied a god for 
every star, the earth itself was under different deities ; but 
science clearly demonstrates that the universe is the offspring 
of one mind. One law is everywhere. The spectroscope has 
shown us that the matter of the sun and of the stars is simi- 
lar to that of our earth. The researches of the evolutionists 
have found throughout the whole gradation of beings marks 
of similarity which bear testimony to one origin. We may 
not admit all their conclusions, but we do find God's signet 
everywhere. He has placed his mark on all his creation, and, 
whatever we may think of the atom or the monad, we know 
all things are of God. Henceforth idolatry, or the worship 



CHRIST'S WORDS THE LIFE OF METHODISM. 119 

of more than one god, is impossible. No intelligent being- 
can bow a knee at the shrine of fancied deities. 

Certain classes of scientists love to descant upon the age of 
the world, and fancy that by removing the period of crea- 
tion millions of years back into eternity they weaken our 
faith in a personal Creator, and in his supervising care. But 
they greatly mistake. No matter how many myriads of ages 
may have elapsed, or through how many convulsions the 
world may have passed, the truth still stands : " In the begin- 
ning God created the heaven and the earth." More than this, 
he upholdeth " all things by the word of his power." There 
must be a power present in the movement of all machinery — 
there must be a living force guiding the movements of the 
universe. The act of creating, though sublime and glorious, 
is little more glorious than that of preserving and perpetuat- 
ing. If from untold myriads of years this universe has ex- 
isted, God's plans are older still, and the stability of nature's 
laws but demonstrates that God was the same yesterday that he 
is to-day, and that he will be the same forever. What power 
is there in that word which upholdeth all things? Could a 
jeweler produce a watch capable of keeping time for a hun- 
dred years without erring a second, of what priceless value 
would it be, and how greatly we should admire the skill of 
the artist ! What shall we say, then, of Him who holds the 
machinery of unnumbered worlds for untold ages in perfect 
harmony ? Nor has one atom ever been lost. Science shows 
us that forms perpetually change, but substances endure. 
Nothing perishes. In this sense it is true that not a jot or 
tittle of his word shall ever fail. 

Great as is the creation and preservation of worlds, there is 
something higher in life. The one is passive, the other ac- 
tive. St. John says of Christ, " In him was life." He was 
the author of life ; he breathed into man a living soul. His 
word perpetuates natural life, and how numberless are its 
varieties and forms ! Think of vegetable life in shrub and 
plant and tree — in the moss that covers the rock or that tinges 
the snow with red. Think of animal life in all its species. 
It is said that three hundred and twenty thousand species 



120 SERMONS. 

have been classified, and that probably the half have not 
been found. In what strange varieties and what singular 
forms does this life exist ! ; Life in the blades of grass ; life 
in the drop of water. Yegetable life below the surface of 
the earth in unturned soil ; animal life in every drop of the 
sea. In summer heat the very dust seems alive, and the air 
is full of living beings. Life is in the microscopic insect 
as well as in the elephant. It coexists with almost every 
form of matter, and is found in almost every temperature. 
The scientific world was startled the other day by the an- 
nouncement that organized forms had been discovered in 
aerolites, and a distinguished savant suggested that possibly 
life might in this way have first reached our earth from more 
advanced worlds. Without discussing the probability of this 
fancy, if it were true that life could come in the midst of a 
glowing mass of incandescent matter, under what fearful sur- 
roundings might it exist ! 

What endless gradations in the character of that life, from 
the worm that riots and multiplies in corruption to man who 
bears the image of God, and is his vicegerent on earth — from 
life for a moment to life everlasting. God's great lesson 
seems to be that life, though working through form, is inde- 
pendent of form ; that life is as truly in the insect, whose 
shadowy shape is scarcely visible in the microscope, as in the 
great whale that makes the ocean boil. 

It is, however, to spiritual life that the text chiefly refers, 
and the declaration is that the words of Christ, the words of 
revelation, both originate and perpetuate this life. Indeed, 
were there no declaration, we might infer so much from the 
fact of revelation being given to man. Unless needed to 
awaken his sensibilities, why did God stoop to Mount Sinai 
to utter in thunder tones his eternal law ? Unless life was 
impossible without it, why did Christ stoop to the manger 
and the cross, and in the tenderest voice of affection offer to 
cure every malady, and to open the dark grave of every hu- 
man heart ? Why was the Jew instructed to bind the law as 
a frontlet between his eyes, and as a border on his garments, 
and to talk of it to his children, sitting down and rising up? 



CHRISTS WORDS THE LIFE OF METHODISM. 121 

Everywhere is religion spoken of as life, both in precepts and 
prophecy. Moses said, " The Lord hath fed thee with manna, 
which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know ; that 
he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread 
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of 
God, doth man live." Every Christian will recall how the 
Saviour quoted this passage in the hour of his temptation. 
The prophet Ezekiel beautifully foretells the coming of Chris- 
tianity. He carries us to the temple, and water drops from 
the right hand of the altar, and issues eastward from the 
threshold of the temple. A thousand cubits are measured, 
and, without any added streams, the water has risen to the 
ankles; another thousand, to the knees; another thousand, to 
the loins ; and another thousand, it is a river to swim in, and 
that cannot be passed over. As the waters pour down the 
deep, dreary valley, trees grow upon the banks, and the dead 
sea becomes alive with fish. Everything liveth whithersoever 
the waters come. Such is a picture of a world dead in sin 
made alive by the stream which issues from the temple of 
God. Again is the prophet carried to the valley of dry bones. 
They are very many and very dry. As he looks upon this 
scene of desolation and death a voice inquires, "Can these 
dry bones live?" Though seemingly impossible, he answers, 
" O Lord God, thou knowest." At God's command he pro- 
claims, " O ye dry bones, hear the w r ord of the Lord," and 
" Behold a shaking, and the bones come together, bone to his 
bone," and " sinews and flesh come upon them." Again he 
prophesies, " O breath, come from the four winds, and breathe 
upon these slain, that they may live," "and the breath came 
into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an 
exceeding great army." Can there be a more vivid illustra- 
tion that the word of God is " spirit and life " ? Can there 
be any field so hopeless to which a minister of Christ shall 
carry the life-giving gospel? These pictures represent the 
nations still in the " darkness of heathenism." There are 
shadows, it is true — even dark shadows — over lands nominally 
Christian, but in the regions beyond the shadows grow broader 
and darker. The great movement which the world has made 



122 SERMONS. 

in the last two centuries received not a single impulse outside of 
Christendom. But, like the stream of vivifying water, or the 
breath on the dry bones, wherever the words of Christ are 
taught the nations awake to life and activity. 

The words of great men have frequently given to nations 
or races increasing influence. What did Plato, Aristotle, and 
Homer for Greece? What did Bacon, Shakespeare, and Mil- 
ton for England ? The example and teaching of one philoso- 
pher may elevate many. How many erring Greeks did Soc- 
rates turn to higher thoughts and nobler life % Alexander, 
we are told, so admired Homer that he slept with a copy un- 
der his pillow, and Homer's heroes inspired him with bravery 
and daring. But if God speaks to man, if from the depth of 
eternity and from the height of his glory he utters words, not 
only of wisdom, but of love — if he offers rest to the weary, 
extends his arms to every returning prodigal, and promises a 
crown of immortality to every faithful servant — how power- 
fully must such words affect the hearts and lives of men ? 
And if accompanying these words, strangely wrapped up in 
them, there is a spiritual omnipotence which softens the most 
obdurate, which sweetly whispers the forgiveness of sins, 
though they may be many — which purifies the heart, which 
fills it with peace and love and joy — even joy unspeakable 
and full of glory — is it too much to believe that redeemed 
and purified spirits shall become one w T ith Christ, as he and 
the Father are one ? No marvel is it, that amid the tortures 
and fires of persecution some of the early Christians, dying, 
clasped the evangels to their bosoms, and thus slept in Jesus, 
in perfect assurance that he would raise them up at the last 
day. Divine words have ever made men heroes; even fan- 
cied divine words. The belief in an invisible, omnipotent 
power always present prepares men for deeds of valor, and 
sustains them in trial. How brave were the martyrs ! How 
many delicate, sensitive women, burned at the stake, were 
sustained even to joyfulness by the thought of being ac- 
counted worthy to suffer for their Master, and were confident 
in his promise of eternal life! 

During his earthly abode with us, Jesus showed how truly 



CHRIST'S. WORDS THE LIEE OF METHODISM. 123 

his words were spirit and life. The prophets had foretold his 
wonderful works, and their prophecies he fulfilled. The sick, 
the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the cripple, the leper, the par- 
alytic, and the demoniac were brought to him, and by a word 
" he healed them all." ISTor were these expressions of sympa- 
thy or manifestations of power designed merely for the friends 
of the sick or dead. He spoke through them to the hearts of 
parents, widows, and sisters of all lands and of all ages, his sym- 
pathy for suffering men, and gave the blessed assurance that 
"earth hath no sorrows which heaven cannot cure." Think, 
also, how simple were his words, how apparently without any 
effort divine power accomplished its grand results! How 
quietly he spoke to the winds, how calmly he blessed the 
bread! — all he did was by a word, a breath, and nothing 
more. There was no second trial, no experimenting, but an 
evident consciousness of exhaustless power. His voice reached 
spirit as well as matter ; the physical was but the type of the 
spiritual. " Whether is it easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven 
thee, or to say, Arise, and walk 2" As he healed every dis- 
ease, so he forgives every sin. His word called the dead to 
life ; the same word saves those who are dead in trespasses 
and sins. No disease was so terrible Christ could not cure it ; 
there is no sinner so depraved that Christ cannot save him. 

The same power that accompanied the words of Christ 
when spoken by his lips accompanies them when spoken by 
his servants ; for he has promised to be with them to the end 
of the world. He hath said, "He that believeth on me, the 
works that I do shall he do also ; and greater works than these 
shall he do; because I go unto the Father." So his words 
have revolutionized the world. Idolatry disappeared before 
the Bible. Temples have been closed and abandoned. The 
cross was exalted above the eagle of the Caesars, and is to-day 
conspicuous above the banners of the nations. Kings have 
become nursing fathers, and queens nursing mothers, and the 
gold and the glory of the earth are being offered to our Mes- 
siah. Errors have been vanquished ; for the word of the Lord 
is sharper than a two-edged sword. 

Great reforms have always been preceded and accompanied 



124: SERMONS. 

by the study of the Bible. In the days of Josiah and of Ezra 
the people were brought by reading of the law to penitence 
and prayer. The early Christians studied the Scriptures, 
among whom the Bereans were specially noted. Transla- 
tions were early made into native languages. The copies, 
however, before the invention of printing, were costly and 
rare. The age of the Reformers was marked by the trans- 
lation and printing of the Bible into the languages of Europe. 
Iiuss, Tyndall, Wiclif, and Luther were as " morning stars " of 
that Reformation which stirred the heart of Europe, which de- 
tached nearly one half of it from the Papacy. A large part 
of the other half would have followed had not the reading of 
the Bible been interdicted, and had not the terrors of the In- 
quisition and the fires of martyrdom been employed against 
Protestantism. In all the great revivals which have since oc- 
curred the reading and study of the Holy Scriptures have 
formed an important part. 

Met to-day, as members of the Methodist family, in a special 
reunion, we may, without a charge of egotism on the one 
hand, or of bigotry on the other, refer more specifically to 
the great revival which began under the labors of John Wes- 
ley and his coadjutors, the influence of which has reached the 
remotest parts of the globe. The beginning of the move- 
ment was in what was termed the " Holy Club " of the Uni- 
versity of Oxford. This was simply a meeting of a few tu- 
tors and students, who examined carefully and critically the 
New Testament in Greek, and who resolved to practice im- 
plicitly its divine commands. Among them there was neither 
fanaticism nor enthusiasm, neither excitement nor deep emo- 
tion. They invoked God's blessing upon their pursuits, and 
prayed for divine guidance. They firmly believed that the 
Bible is the word of God, and they studied its meaning 
thoroughly, that they might be able more intelligently and 
more perfectly to obey. Taught by that word, they vis- 
ited " the fatherless and the widow in their affliction, and 
kept themselves unspotted from the world." They were 
good students, obedient to the rules of the university, faithful 
to their Church's services, and just and honorable in all their 



CHRIST'S WORDS THE LIFE OF METHODISM. 125 

relations. Believing it to be their duty to redeem the time 
because it was precious, they practised great regularity, shun- 
ned all revelry as well as amusements, avoided injurious com- 
pany, and gave their spare moments to works of charity. 
They visited and instructed the sick and the poor, and helped 
them as far as their scanty means would allow. They entered 
the jails, and read to the prisoners the word of God, giving 
also admonition and encouragement. They lived as seeing 
him who is invisible, and sought to follow the footsteps of 
their divine Master. Reproved or ridiculed, they referred 
not to the customs of society, but appealed directly to the 
Holy Scriptures. For this devotion they were named by 
their fellow-students "Bible moths," and " Bible bigots," and 
then the "Holy Club;" subsequently they were termed 
"Methodists." Such was the only Methodism in the world 
one hundred and fifty years ago — a half-dozen students and 
tutors in the university studying the word of God critically, 
believing it implicitly, and obeying it practically in every 
possible form of doing good. This was old-fashioned Method- 
ism. Could such a spirit return to our colleges and universi- 
ties, were all the professors and students of like mind, what 
"spirit and life" would soon be manifested in all our ranks! 
What a host of "burning and shining lights" would soon 
honor our age ! 

Yet with all these virtues they had not yet attained a full 
Christian experience. They had read, " Being justified by 
faith, we have peace with God." They had read, " The Spirit 
itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children 
of God." And again, " He that believeth on the Son of God 
hath the witness in himself." They had read that "perfect 
love casteth out fear," but they fancied that these " exceeding 
great and precious promises" could not, in their fulness, be 
enjoyed until the hour of death or shortly before. Subse- 
quently Mr. Wesley became associated with some Moravians 
who professed to enjoy such a blessed experience. He lis- 
tened to their words, observed closely their conduct, and be- 
came fully convinced of their sincerity and uprightness. In 
a frightful tempest he found them— men, women, and chil- 



126 SERMONS. 

dren — calmly singing hymns in the face of apparent death. 
Their testimony coincided with the word of God, and he rest- 
ed not until he was made "partaker of a like precious faith." 
In the circumstances connected with his experience we have 
an illustration of the life which abides in the divine word. 
Six hundred years before Christ the prophet Habakkuk had 
written, " The just shall live by his faith." The apostle Paul 
felt the power of the utterance, and quoted it in his Epistle 
to the Romans, and in those to the Galatians and the He- 
brews he forcibly illustrated its meaning. Nearly fifteen 
centuries passed when the eye of Luther fell upon it as 
he searched the pages of the chained Bible in his convent. 
It turned the monk into the reforming hero, and manfully 
did he battle for the truth. Two centuries more had passed, 
when, one evening, at a little meeting-room in Aldersgate 
Street, in this city, one was reading Luther's " Preface to the 
Epistle to the Romans," where he " teaches what faith is, and 
that faith alone justifies." Mr. Wesley listened, and he re- 
cords, " I felt my heart strangely warmed ; I felt I did trust 
in Christ — Christ alone — for salvation ; and an assurance was 
given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and 
saved me from the law of sin and death ; and I then testified 
openly to all there what I now first felt in my heart." Thus 
from century to century, from Jerusalem to Erfurth, and 
from Erfurth to London, the word of God " was spirit and 
was life." Then began Wesley's career of joyous and trium- 
phant faith. His ministry assumed a new phase. Having read 
that "Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for ev- 
ery man," and that the blood of " Christ cleanseth from all 
unrighteousness," he became the earnest and unwearied her- 
ald of a free and full salvation. With a warm heart he offered 
the blessings of the gospel then and there to waiting congre- 
gations. Multitudes flocked to his ministry, for he seemed to 
them as a messenger from another world. Soon the churches 
of the city were closed against him, the clergy denounced him 
from their pulpits, and the bishops admonished him ; but his 
simple appeal was to the word of God. As Luther, at the 
Diet of Worms, facing the powers of the world, stood with 



CHRIST'S WORDS THE LIFE OF METHODISM. 127 

the Bible before him, and, closing his defence, said, in his 
strong German, "Ich kann nich anders; Gott hilf mir," so 
stood Wesley. He could do no more, and he cried, "God 
help me !" As God helped Luther to shake the power of the 
Papacy, he helped Wesley to arouse a slumbering world. 

Though abused by the press, though derided in books and 
pamphlets, though caricatured on the stage and by the pen- 
cil, though persecuted and his life endangered by mobs, some 
of which, we are sorry to say, were headed by priests who 
were never rebuked by their bishops, he kept on his way 
rejoicing. His new experience never turned him from his 
studies, nor from his plans of almost boundless benevolence. 
He still visited prisoners in Newgate and elsewhere, and 
preached to them both the terrors of the law and the prom- 
ises of the gospel. He accompanied penitent malefactors to 
the gallows, administering consolation ; and many a prisoner, 
detained for paltry debts, he liberated out of his own means 
or by gifts from friends. He organized schools for the poor, 
and enlisted the voluntary services of young men and young 
women in their behalf. He started in connection with tho 
old Foundry a dispensary, the first in the city of London, and 
some say the first in the world. His soul burned with mis- 
sionary fire, and, proclaiming that the world was his parish, 
he sent missionaries, as far as he was able, to every open door. 
He wrote and published tracts, and helped to form one of the 
first tract societies ever organized. Immediately after Dr. 
Franklin published his experiments with electricity he placed 
electrical machines in several neighborhoods, that the poor 
might obtain relief from nervous diseases, and with almost 
prophetic words wrote, " What an amazing scene is here 
opened for after-ages to improve upon !" In short, he had 
taken Christ alone for his exemplar, and he went about al- 
ways doing good. A hundred years have passed. His tra- 
ducers sleep, and are almost forgotten. But Wesley lives ; 
philosophers, statesmen, and historians honor his name; his 
tablet is among the tombs of the men of might in Westmin- 
ster Abbey, and his spiritual children, in all parts of the 
world, rise up to call him blessed. 



128 SERMONS. 

Individual life is, at longest, but brief. Organization is 
required that the manifestations of life may continue, and 
that organization will be most successful which gives the full- 
est scope to the animating spirit. The strong features of 
Methodism, as we have seen, were Bible study, Bible experi- 
ence, and Christian activity. To promote these we find sev- 
eral provisions which are specially serviceable, and among 
them two may be named. 

1. Lay-preaching was one of the first and most successful 
of its peculiarities. At the time of the origin of Methodism 
it was thought almost profane for one not episcopally, or at 
least clerically, ordained to exhort his fellow-men. The min- 
ister alone led the prayer-meeting or officiated in the pulpit. 
By the employment of lay-preachers a class of men was called 
into active labor who had not enjoyed university or theolog- 
ical training. Some of them became diligent and successful 
students. Mr. Wesley termed Thomas Walsh the best Hebra- 
ist he ever knew, and says, " I never asked him the meaning 
of a Hebrew word but he could tell me how often it occurred 
in the Bible, and what it meant in each place." The fame of 
Dr. Adam Clarke became world-wide. These, however, were 
rare exceptions, even among those who devoted their whole 
time to the ministry. The great majority of the lay-preach- 
ers worked for their daily bread, and were moved by a pow- 
erful impulse to preach without salary or reward. Some of 
them had few books besides the Bible, and to it they always 
directly appealed. All of them were Bible students. They 
had no doubt of its inspiration. They were not troubled by 
what sceptics did say or might say. They listened only for 
Christ's voice, and their message to men was, " Thus saith the 
Lord." To them the gospel was the power of God unto sal- 
vation, and they believed that divine power always accompa- 
nied the word. They read and believed the promise, " For 
as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and re- 
turneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it 
bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and 
bread to the eater : so shall my word be that goeth forth out 
of my month : it shall not return unto me void, but it shall 



CHRIST'S WORDS THE LIFE OF METHODISM. 129 

accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper m the 
thing whereto I sent it." Their faith was frequently sub- 
lime. Without friends, without support, they went to the 
collieries and to the commons and to the slums of cities, and, 
in spite of interruptions and mobs, preached the unsearchable 
riches of Christ to multitudes who seldom, if ever, had entered 
a church. Probably no preachers since the apostolic times had 
more implicit faith in the power of the gospel applied to the 
human conscience. They expected awakenings or conversions 
under every sermon, and they were seldom disappointed. To 
fit themselves for this work they read the Bible daily, thor- 
oughly, and many of them on their knees, imploring divine 
light. To help them, Mr. Wesley published outline gram- 
mars of Greek and Hebrew, and his "Notes on the New Tes- 
tament;" but his emphatic injunction was, "Have a Bible 
always about you." As these men were of the masses, their 
spirit spread to those around them, and hence promoted Bible 
study among the common people. 

2. The institution of classes and class-meetings led in the 
same direction. One of every twelve members of the socie- 
ties was appointed a leader. It became his duty to converse 
carefully with each member of his class, and to give such di- 
rection, warning, reproof, or encouragement as he might deem 
beneficial. To do this successfully he must study the Script- 
ures, and the early class-leaders were remarkably apt in quo- 
tations from the Psalms and from the apostles' writings as to 
Christian experience. In their meetings the leader not un- 
frequently called other members to assist him or to take his 
place ; and all the members, in their utterances of experience, 
resorted to biblical expressions to indicate their spiritual state. 
Each member was not only exhorted, but was stimulated by 
the spiritual triumphs of others, to seek the highest privileges 
of true believers. In these meetings women took equal part 
with men, and were thus prepared to speak in love-feasts, and 
to participate in social prayer. The Methodist mothers of early 
times frequently led in family prayer. Many a wife pleaded 
for the conversion of her irreligious husband, and many a pi- 
ous widow at the family altar consecrated her fatherless chil- 

9 



130 SERMONS. 



dren to God. Some of us can still hear a mother's voice ring- 
ing in our ears as when, with tearful eye, she pleaded with 
God in our behalf. In some instances women were class-lead- 
ers, and a few officiated more publicly. Among the company 
of sainted women how brightly shine the names of Mrs. Fletch- 
er, Hester Ann Rogers, and Lady Maxwell ! 

The opposition which Methodism encountered almost com- 
pelled its early members to study the Bible in self-defence. 
Their doctrines were everywhere assailed. Antinomianism 
had taken possession of a large number of the pulpits, and 
its votaries opposed with great earnestness the doctrines of a 
free and full salvation. The Methodists, believing in the 
possible salvation of all men, and, further, believing that each 
one is responsible for the talents and opportunities bestowed, 
felt constrained by the love of Christ to make personal efforts 
in behalf of a sinful world. 

Of the success of Methodism I do not wish to speak in de- 
tail. That will be better done by others during the progress 
of our Conference. That we are here to-day is evidence of 
our success. We have come from every quarter of the globe, 
and from distant islands of the sea. The gospel is preached 
by the sons of Wesley in more than thirty different languages. 
The common people have heard them gladly, and have gath- 
ered into their sanctuaries. They have published books and 
tracts, founded schools, and are establishing hospitals for the 
sick and homes for the aged and the orphan. Beginning 
among the poor and unknown, whose hearts have been 
strangely warmed, they have risen, as heated air always rises, 
and are touching here and there the wise and great and strong, 
though their triumphs are still largely among the masses. 
Leaving the land of its earliest triumphs, Methodism has 
reached the heathen in his abodes of darkness, encountered 
the Mohammedan in his bigotry, and has confronted the Ro- 
manist under the shadow of St. Peter's. It has bravery and 
daring ; it has spirit and life. 

How has this success been gained, if not by the spirit and 
life which Christ imparts? Where are the human agencies 
adequate for such results ? 



CHRIST'S WORDS THE LIFE OF METHODISM. 131 

1. Methodism has not made its conquests bj the sword or 
by the employment of force. The followers of Mohammed 
overran Western Asia, Northern Africa, and parts of Europe. 
They conquered by force, and to-day their religion holds its 
votaries chiefly by repressing free utterance and action. Ro- 
manism regained full control of Bohemia, parts of Bavaria, 
France, and Belgium only by military power and by terrible 
cruelties. The massacre of St. Bartholomew, the ashes of 
Huss, and the thousands murdered by the Duke of Alva bear 
fearful testimony to its spirit. But Methodism has never 
wielded a sword; it has had no prisons ; it has never even cut 
off an ear in self-defence. 

2. It has not grown by government favor or patronage. 
From its origin to this day it has not, in any civilized land, en- 
joyed the smiles of royalty, or the patronage of many of the 
nobility. It has had few powerful friends at court. Nor has 
it received money from the public treasury. The Roman 
Catholic and the Reformed Churches on the Continent, the 
Church of England, the Church of Scotland, the Romanists and 
the Presbyterians in Ireland, have been fed more or less at the 
public treasury. In America, in early times, the Episcopalians 
and the Congregationalists were supported partly at public ex- 
pense. But Methodism has stood alone, unbefriended by the 
government and unaided by its resources. Its people have 
never been dependent, and hence have acquired self-reliance, 
and dare to express their opinions in the face of opposition. 
They have passed through serious convulsions of government 
without harm, for they had no power or place to lose. But, 
though unaided by the civil power, they have ever been loyal. 
No people have volunteered more freely their means, or con- 
secrated more promptly their lives, in their country's service. 
They have borne the burdens of citizens and subjects without 
enjoving the patronage of the great. 

3. Nor did they own large landed estates, or possess great 
wealth. In other years patents were granted for large tracts 
of land which became to families, and indirectly to churches, 
of great value. The cases of William Penn and Lord Balti- 
more may be cited as instances. But Methodism had no such 



132 SERMONS. 

sources of wealth. Its people at first were poor ; they had no 
estates and no endowments. 

4. 'Nov had it special assistance from schools, or from old 
educational foundations. In its earlier years help in this kind 
it had none. Mr. Wesley founded and struggled for years to 
maintain the Kingswood School, which has had a proud rec- 
ord, and has accomplished great good. But what was that 
compared with the venerable colleges and rich endowments 
in England, Scotland, and Ireland? It is well known that 
until recently Oxford and Cambridge have refused their hon- 
ors without subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles ; and the 
sons of Methodism who sought a university education were 
estranged from the faith of their fathers. In America the 
literary institutions were under the control of some of the 
older churches ; and, while no religious test was legal, the 
whole influence was thrown against Methodist theology and 
usage. Some of us well remember the proscription and ridi- 
cule through which we passed on account of our faith. At 
last, in self-defence, Methodism was obliged to build its own 
colleges and schools. But what an unequal struggle! A 
people few in numbers, without wealth, to come into compe- 
tition with the strength and endowments of centuries ! When 
we look around us and see what has been accomplished in 
this field, and what facilities are now afforded, we can only 
say, " What hath God wrought !" 

5. Nor did it enjoy the powerful agency of the press. In 
its earlier years it was fearfully traduced, and to this day it is 
the subject of unjust and merciless criticism from old-estab- 
lished papers and reviews. Nor is the ink scarcely dry upon 
pages prepared and published by its enemies to caricature its 
(Ecumenical Conference. But its opponents forget that it has 
met this ordeal for more than a hundred years without seri- 
ous injury. To defend himself and his cause, as well as to 
furnish religious reading for his people, Mr. Wesley early es- 
tablished a magazine, which still lives. This has been fol- 
lowed by papers and periodicals in many countries and lan- 
guages, until it may be boldly said that the press of Method- 
ism is not surpassed in the number of its issues, or in the 



CHRIST'S WORDS THE LIFE OF METHODISM. 133 

ability of its management, by the press of any other Church. 
Meanwhile the general press has become more courteous, and 
we have little of which to complain, except from a few peri- 
odicals controlled by our foes. 

Nor did it grow because the times were propitious. The 
age of its origin was one of spiritual darkness. England, in 
the early part of the eighteenth century, had largely lapsed 
into infidelity. Ministers, even in the pulpit, cast doubts 
upon the truth of the Bible. Some of them, by their lives 
and writings, brought discredit on the sacred desk. Immoral- 
ity was unrebuked. This is the universal testimony of states- 
men, historians, and divines. Had it not been for some such 
movement as that of the Wesleys, England would have fol- 
lowed France in her terrible career. I heard Cardinal Man- 
ning, in his sermon on the anniversary of the re-establishment 
of the Eoman Catholic hierarchy in England, say that, " had 
it not been for John Wesley, and his preaching of justifica- 
tion by faith, no man could tell to what a depth of degrada- 
tion England would have sunk." 

It may be said that the unprecedented growth of Method- 
ism, especially in America and Australia, is due largely to 
migration from older lands. It undoubtedly has thus received 
many, very many, valuable accessions, but its relative growth 
cannot be traced to this cause. The heaviest migration to 
America was, for many years, from Ireland. But in Ireland 
there is, according to the census, but one Methodist to every 
hundred of the population. There is but one Methodist to ten 
Presbyterians. If the emigration is relatively equal, other 
churches must receive ninety-nine for every one that swells 
the Methodist ranks. Still stronger is the ratio against Meth- 
odism on the Continent and in Scotland. In England the 
proportion is different, but the Establishment still largely 
outnumbers the Methodist Churches, and, consequently, in 
the migration, the Protestant Episcopalians are largely the 
gainers. 

If, then, its growth cannot be accounted for by the sword, 
by government aid, by the patronage of the nobility, by wealth, 
by the schools, by the press, by emigration, or by the demands 



134 SERMONS. 

of the age, where, among human agencies, do we find the cause ? 
Was it by the superior wisdom and skill of those who laid 
its foundations and reared its superstructure ? Our critical 
friends will scarcely admit that. "Was it by the superior 
learning or eloquence of its ministers ? That will scarcely be 
granted. Was it by social influence ? That would be denied. 
Was it by the assumption of exclusive powers or privileges ? 
It never claimed apostolic succession. It had no close com- 
munion. From its earliest history it has recognized as Chris- 
tians all who love and honor the Lord Jesus Christ. Neither its 
altars nor its pulpits have ever been closed against Christians 
or Christian ministers by either cannons of brass or canons of 
parchment. Where, then, can be the secret of its success, save 
in its spirit and in its life ? Its ministers felt the power of a 
divine call. Like the apostle, woe was upon them if they 
preached not the gospel. They braved winter's cold and 
summer's heat, swam streams and threaded forests, endured 
persecution and reproach, to save their fellow-men. The peo- 
ple recognized their earnestness and sincerity, believed that 
they were sent of God, listened to their words, and were saved. 
Thus societies were gathered without church edifices and with- 
out regular pastors. They met together for singing, prayer, 
and mutual exhortation, until increasing numbers and means 
enabled them to erect humble buildings and to establish con- 
gregations. They grew because there was unoccupied terri- 
tory. They grew because the Head of the Church had given 
to them " spirit and life." 

There are those, however, who disparage Methodism because 
it has had divisions, and they predict its early disintegration. 
For the same reason Christianity itself might be disparaged. 
The learned and eloquent Bossuet wrote a work against Prot- 
estantism, criticising its variations as showing its weakness; 
but, nevertheless, in the last century the progress of Protes- 
tantism has been more rapid than ever before. I am not sure 
that these divisions are an unmixed evil. They seem to me 
to have compensations also. With the various tastes and hab- 
its of men I fancy that through churches somewhat differ- 
ently organized, and with different usages, more minds may 



CHRIST'S WORDS THE LIFE OF METHODISM. 135 

be won for Christ. Certainly we may be provoked to love 
and good works. It seems, also, to me, that as God has shown 
us physical life in almost every possible form, he means us to 
understand that the Christian life may exist and nourish in dif- 
ferent organizations and under most unlike usages. He would 
show us that there is no sacredness in mere ecclesiasticism. 
Organization has its value, and every member of each Church 
should be true to his associates ; yet the organization is only 
the temple in which the life dwells. The organization is of 
man, the life is of Christ. Were there but one Church with 
certain usages that prospered we should think its forms and 
usages were in themselves sacred ; we should grow narrow 
and bigoted. Oar Church would be the Church, and all others 
would be schismatic. But when we see life in other churches, 
we learn that the God of the Jew is the God of the Gentile 
also. We recognize a brother beloved in every member of 
the family, and praise God for the infinitude of his grace. 
Quite possibly, also, in these separate organizations a little 
more flexibility may be gained, and, while holding fast 
to the great Head, and contending earnestly for the faith 
once delivered to the saints, we may learn from one another 
something that may help us in conquering the world for 
Christ. 

As to the divisions in the Methodist family, there is little to 
mar the family likeness. For, first, there has been among the 
Wesleyan ranks no division on the ground of doctrine. The 
clear statements in Mr. Wesley's services and the character of 
the hymns constantly sung have aided in keeping us one. 
All over the world Methodist theology is a unit. Nor, sec- 
ondly, is there any radical difference in usage. The class- 
meeting, the prayer-meeting, the love-feast, the watch-night, 
though more or less strictly observed, are known everywhere 
in Methodism. So far as the member is concerned, there is 
scarcely a single difference. Even in the connectional bonds 
there is general likeness. The itinerant ministry and the 
Quarterly and Annual Conferences exist in almost every 
branch. In the manner of legislation and in the mode of 
effecting ministerial changes there are some differences, but 



136 SERMONS. 

the points of agreement are so numerous as compared with 
the differences that we are emphatically one. We have 
had no divisions about genuflections and vestments and can- 
dles. We have no High-Church, or Low-Church, or Broad- 
Church. 

Differ as we may, there is something in all of us which the 
world recognizes. Does a minister preach with unusual 
fervor, does he in all his labors exhibit unusual zeal — does not 
the world say he preaches like a Methodist % Does a congre- 
gation meet and sing and pray and rejoice — does not the 
world say they are like Methodists ? This Conference evinces 
a yearning for closer union, for more fraternal feeling. It is 
in the spirit of Mr. Wesley, who sought a closer union among 
all Christians. His societies were at first independent. When, 
by the formation of a Conference, they were united, he greatly 
rejoiced. Not only so, but he wrote in 1764, " I have long de- 
sired that there might be an open, avowed union between all 
who preach those fundamental truths — original sin and justi- 
fication by faith, producing inward and outward holiness; 
but all my endeavors have been hitherto ineffectual. God's 
time has not fully come." Again he wrote, "I do not desire 
a union of opinion among them. They might agree or dis- 
agree touching absolute decrees on the one hand and perfec- 
tion on the other. Not a union in expression. These may 
still speak of imputed righteousness, and those of the merits 
of Christ. Not a union with regard to outward order. Some 
may remain still quite regular, some quite irregular, and some 
partly regular and partly irregular." Again he wrote, " I ask 
but one thing, ' Is thy heart right as my heart is with thine V 
If it be so, give me thy hand." His great soul was a 
hundred years in advance of the Christian world. Recently 
we have seen a Pan-Anglican Congress, a Pan-Presbyterian 
Council, and now a Methodist (Ecumenical Conference. Do 
not these foreshadow an (Ecumenical Protestant Conference, 
when Mr. Wesley's hope shall be realized, and the world shall 
see that evangelical Christians are one in heart ? Certain I 
am that there will be an (Ecumenical Conference, if not on 
earth, at least in heaven, when the good and the wise of all 



CHRIST'S WORDS THE LIFE OF METHODISM. 137 

ages and of all churches shall meet at the Redeemer's throne. 
The more we grow into the spirit of that heavenly union the 
closer we come together here. 

I was walking, weeks since, in a beautiful grove. The trees 
were some distance apart, and the trunks were straight and 
rugged. But as they ascended higher the branches came 
close together, and still higher the twigs and branches inter- 
laced and formed a beautiful canopy. I said to myself, our 
churches resemble these trees. The trunks near the earth 
stand stiffly and widely apart. The more nearly towards 
heaven they ascend, the closer and closer they come togeth- 
er, until they form one beautiful canopy, under which the 
sons of men enjoy both shelter and happiness. Then I 
thought of that beautiful prayer of the Saviour, " That they 
all may be one, that the world may know that thou hast 
sent me, and that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved 
me." 

In loving obedience to Christ's commands, and in earnest 
effort for the extension of his kingdom by doing good to men, 
is true oneness with him to be found. Those who have the 
spirit of Christ, who go about always doing good, will be like- 
minded. The future of Methodism, if I have rightly traced 
the source of its power, will depend upon the careful study of 
God's word — which should be still more encouraged, both in 
the family and in the Sunday-school — upon an implicit belief 
in its divine authority, a loving obedience to all its commands, 
a ceaseless activity in doing good, and a glorious enjoyment 
of all its precious promises. This last feature is essential to 
great success. " The joy of the Lord is your strength " is as 
true to-day as in the time of Nehsmiah. The cry of the hu- 
man soul in its hours of weakness and loneliness is for God. 
" O that I knew where I might find him " is but an echo of 
the voice of humanity. The Catholics seek to satisfy this 
want by alleging that in the mass the wafer is actually trans- 
muted into the body and blood of Christ, and that he is there 
and then actually present. No marvel that with this belief 
the knee is bowed at the elevation of the host. No wonder is 
it that the priest has such power over the consciences of the 



138 SERMONS. 

people. The Ritualists in the Church of England and the 
High-Church party among the Lutherans tend strongly to the 
same belief. The doctrine of apostolical succession is but a 
figment invented to require a priestly intervention between 
the soul and its Redeemer. Methodism rejects all these opin- 
ions and practices. It invites the sinner directly to the Sav- 
iour, and assures him that in his own conscious experience of 
peace and love and joy he shall know that he is accepted of 
Christ. There are but the two ultimate theories. The sinner 
must come to Christ through the priest, who holds the keys, 
or he must come personally to the throne of grace, where he 
shall find grace and mercy to help in time of need. He must 
receive absolution from the priest, or must have the con- 
scious forgiveness of sins through the Holy Spirit. Those 
who have found Christ " the way, the truth, and the life," 
and who have obtained " peace and joy in the Holy Ghost," 
should give decided testimony. " Ye are my witnesses, saith 
the Lord." If Mr. Wesley was led to Christian assurance in 
part by the testimony of others, how much more do men gen- 
erally need this testimony ! Where sinners are awakened, 
converted, and reformed, where the Church is joyful in God, 
men feel that God is, of a truth, in the midst of them, and 
they come unto him through the one and only Mediator. 

The perils of Methodism will lie in a neglect or doubt of 
the word of God, in a low experience, or in carelessness for 
the souls of those around us. 

How interesting are the circumstances under which we 
have met to-day ! We are in a building planned by Mr. Wes- 
ley and erected through his own exertions. In this pulpit he 
frequently preached. Beside us reposes his dust. We are in 
the city traversed by his feet, on the commons of which he 
preached to vast multitudes when the churches were closed 
against him. We, his sons, have gathered, not from England 
merely, but from all parts of the world. We are here, not to 
legislate, not to establish any new doctrine, nor to enact any 
ecclesiastical canon ; we come not by authority, not to seek 
for ourselves position or place ; but we have come, moved by 
the spirit of love for one another, to join hands, to look in 



CHRIST'S WORDS THE LIFE OE METHODISM. 139 

one another's eyes, to report progress, and to exchange fra- 
ternal views. A few days shall we be in session, and then 
away to different parts of Mr. Wesley's great parish — the 
world. Could he witness such an assembly, convened in his 
own spirit, composed of his own spiritual sons, would not his 
heart leap for joy? Are we sure he is not here? Can we 
not almost see that face of purity and love? Can we not al- 
most hear that voice to which thousands listened? Is he not 
a part of the glorious cloud of witnesses by whom we are 
even now encompassed? Our elder brothers — Fletcher and 
Benson, Clarke and Watson — who preached in this pulpit, are 
they not here also ? What a host has ascended heavenward ! 
Some have long since joined the celestial company; others, 
among whom we mourn our beloved and honored Punshon, 
have scarcely entered within the gates. As I look upward at 
the glorious train my heart exclaims, "My father, my father! 
the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!" May a 
double portion of their spirit be upon us ? 

Brothers, let us here renew our vows of allegiance to Christ, 
of increased fidelity to his cause. When w r e go forth from 
this place may it be to carry with us more of the spirit of 
the Head of the Church ! We honor the name of Wesley, 
but we call no man Master save Christ Jesus the Lord. His 
words alone let us preach to dying men. We have no fears 
for the Bible, nor for the assaults of unbelief. God's word, 
by its own spirit and life, commends itself to the consciences 
of men. Our fields of duty may lie far apart ; we may scarce- 
ly see in this life what we accomplish ; but in the coming 
eternity we shall discern that we were fellow-workmen in one 
great work. It is said that in the manufacture of Gobelin 
tapestry the workman sits at the back of the material, and 
does not see the figures which he is making, nor can he con- 
ceive how his small corner may be connected with the rest. 
He must implicitly follow the directions before him. A sin- 
gle error on his part will mar the beauty of the work. Broth- 
ers, so we work. We sit on the earthly side of the fabric ; 
the beautiful side is turned towards heaven. We see not 
fully what we achieve, but there are eyes that every moment 



140 SERMONS. 

behold the pictures which we form ; and in the day of eter- 
nity we shall see as we are seen. Let us follow the pattern, 
and do glorious service for Christ. Then, when heart and 
flesh shall fail, we shall be able to say, with the dying Wesley, 
" The best of all is, God is with us." 



VIII. 

€$t %m\uuthu of Cjirist 



THE KESUKKECTXON OF CHKIST. 

"But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of 
them that slept." — 1 Cor. xv. 20. 

A little more than eighteen hundred years ago, as the 
light of the morning was breaking upon Jerusalem, there was 
a guard placed about a sepulchre in a small garden near the 
city walls. Some startling events had occurred on the Friday 
before. While a man who had come from the hills of Galilee 
had been hanging on the cross, strange signs appeared in 
the temple, in the heavens, and on the earth. It was ru- 
mored that he had said he would rise the third morning. 
The third morning was dawning, and, as the light began to 
break in the east, two women silently wended their way 
among the tents that were pitched about the city; they had 
sojourned all night in the tents, for as yet the city gates 
had not been opened. They came to see the sepulchre, and 
were bringing spices in their hands. They loved the man 
who had been crucified because of his goodness, his compas- 
sion, and his purity. They seemed to be almost the only per- 
sons on earth who did love him deeply, save the small circle 
of friends gathered around him. There had been curses 
hurled upon his head as he hung on the cross — curses from 
the bystanders, curses from the soldiers, curses from the peo- 
ple. They cried: "If he be the king of Israel, let him now 
come down, and we will believe him !" and on that morning 
there were none but a few feeble, obscure, heart-broken friends 
who dared to come near his grave. 

A little more than eighteen hundred years have passed 
away, and on the anniversary of that day, the morning of the 
first day of the week, the first Sabbath after the full moon 
and the vernal equinox, the whole world comes to visit his 



144 SERMONS. 

grave. The eyes of princes and of statesmen, the eyes of the 
poor and the humble, in all parts of the earth, are turned 
towards it. All through Europe men and women are think- 
ing of that sepulchre, and. of him who lay there. All over 
Western lands, from ocean to ocean, on mountain-top, in val- 
ley, and over broad prairies, the thought and love of the peo- 
ple are gathered about that grave. In the darkness of Africa, 
here and there, we see them stretching out their hands tow- 
ards it. Along from the coasts of India and the heights of 
the Himalayas they have heard of that grave, and are bend- 
ing towards it. The Chinese, laying aside their prejudices, 
have turned their eyes westward, and are looking thither. 
Along the shores of the seas the affections of the people have 
not only been gathering about the grave, but they have caught 
a glimpse of the rising inmate, who ascended in his glory tow- 
ards heaven. The song of jubilee has gone forth, and the old 
men are saying, " The Lord is risen from the dead." The 
young men and maidens catcli the glowing theme, and the 
little children, scarcely comprehending the source of their joy, 
with glad hearts rejoice because Jesus has risen from the dead. 
All over the earth tidings have gone forth, and as the valleys 
and plains have been ringing out their praises on this bright 
Sabbath morning, how many hearts have been singing, 

"Our Jesus is gone up on high"? 

Why this change ? What has produced such a wonderful 
difference? The malefactor, once cursed, now honored; the 
obscure and despised, now sought for ; the rising Redeemer, 
not then regarded by men, now universally worshipped. What 
is the cause of the great change? how brought about? The 
subject of the morning, taken from the associations of this 
day, calls us to consider, as briefly as we may, the fact of the 
resurrection of Christ from the dead, and some of the conse- 
quences which flow to us therefrom. 

It is important for us to fix clearly in our minds the fact of 
the resurrection ; for our faith rests on facts, and the mind 
should clearly embrace these, that we may feel that we are 
standing on solid ground. This fact of the resurrection of 



THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 145 

Christ is the foundation of the Christian system; for the 
apostle says, " And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain ; 
ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep 
in Christ are perished." If Christ be not risen, we shall never 
see the fathers and the mothers who have fallen asleep in Je- 
sus ; we shall never see the little ones that have gone up to be, 
as we believe, angels before the throne of God. If Christ be 
not raised, we are of all men the most miserable, because we 
are fancying future blessedness which never can be secured ; 
but if Christ be risen, then shall we also rise, and then them 
that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. And, that our 
minds may have rest as to the reality of Christ's resurrection, 
let us notice how God has arranged the evidences to secure 
the knowledge of it clearly to man. 

The first point to which our attention is invited is the fact 
of Christ's death. Were not this clearly established it would 
be in vain to try to prove his resurrection from the dead. 
Christ might have suffered for man in some obscure place ; 
he might have laid down his life as a ransom, and yet there 
would have been no sufficient evidence of it. God allowed 
the wrath of man to become the means of praising him, in 
that he suffered Christ to be taken under what was then the 
legal process — arrested first by the great council of the Jews, 
and then by the authority of the Roman governor, so that the 
matter became one of public record — a legal transaction. The 
highest powers both of the Jewish and Roman government 
united in his arrest, his trial, and his condemnation to death. 
Not only was this permitted, but the time of the occurrence 
was wisely arranged. It was at the great feast, when all the 
Jews came up to keep the Passover. They came not only 
from Egypt, but from all the countries through which they 
were scattered. Jerusalem could not hold the multitudes that 
came together ; they pitched their tents about the city, on 
the hills and in the valleys. It was the time of full moon, 
when there was brightness all night, and they dwelt in their 
tents with safety. The multitude, then, was there to witness 
the scene, so that it might be attested by people from all parts 
of Judea, and from all countries round about Judea. 

10 



146 SERMONS. 

Then, again, the form of the death was such as to be not 
sudden, but one of slow torture. Had the execution been 
sudden, as it might have been, the death would have been 
equally efficacious, yet it would not have been witnessed by 
so many ; but, as he hung those dreadful hours, from nine 
until three, the sun being darkened, what an opportunity was 
given to the people passing near to be impressed by the scene. 
The crucifixion took place hard by the walls ; the crowd was 
there; the temple worship was in progress; the strangers 
were there ; and as one great stream passes on a festive day 
through the chief thoroughfare of your city, so passed the 
stream of men, women, and children by the cross on which 
the Saviour hung. They wagged their heads and reviled as 
they went. Then, again, the circumstances attending his 
death were such as to invite universal notice. 'Not only was 
it designed that the death should be seen and known by the 
multitude; but, in addition, that man's attention should be 
drawn to something to be connected with the wonderful 
event; hence God called upon the heavens and the earth, 
the air and the graves, and the temple itself for testimony. 
It is said that before the coronation of a prince in olden time 
in Europe, and in some kingdoms the custom is still observed, 
there is sent forth a herald, sometimes three days in advance, 
to challenge any one who dares to claim the kingdom to come 
and prove his right, and to announce that the coronation of 
his prince is to take place. Methinks it was such a challenge 
God gave to all the powers of the world and to all the pow- 
ers of darkness. There hung suffering on the cross He who 
died for human woe, and as he hung God was about to crown 
him King of kings and Lord of lords. He sends forth his 
voice of challenge, and as he speaks the earth rocks to its cen- 
tre; that ground, shaking and convulsing, was a call to man 
to witness what was about to occur. Not only is there a voice 
of earth. The sun clothed himself in sackcloth for three 
hours, as if to say : " There will be gloom for three days ; the 
great source of light hath veiled himself, as in a mantle of 
night. As, for three hours, this darkness hangs, but as out of 
the darkness the light shines forth, so, at the end of the three 



THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 147 

days, shall the sun of righteousness shine out again, the great 
centre of glory, with the glory which he had with the Father 
from the foundation of the world." It was as if a herald's 
voice passed through the heavens, and spoke to all the orbs 
of light, " Give attention, ye created beings, to what is to 
come." But it was not alone in the earth, nor in the heavens, 
that the tidings were proclaimed. Look in yonder valley. 
The tombs are there ; the prophets have been buried there. 
The hillside is full of the resting-places of the dead ; genera- 
tions on generations have been buried there ; friends are walk- 
ing in it, and they are saying, " There is a mighty judge in Is- 
rael ; there is the tomb of a prophet." They were passing to 
and fro through the valley of death when the earthquake 
tread was heard, and behold ! the tombs were opened, and 
there was a voice that seemed to call from the very depths of 
the graves, "Hear, O sons of men!" What was to occur? 
What could all this mean % 

JSTow here were calls to mankind, as if to announce the 
great event. While this was occurring, Christ was on the 
cross, suffering the agony of crucifixion. How deep that 
agony we need not attempt to tell you ; and yet no murmur- 
ing was there. He bore the sins of many in his own flesh 
on the tree. He heard the multitudes revile him ; he saw 
them wag their heads ; he remembered that the disciples had 
fled from him — one followed afar off, but the rest had gone. 
Friends and kindred had left him, and he trod the winepress 
alone. He drank the cup in its bitterness, and no complaint 
escaped him. " The world is gone, the disciples I have fed and 
taught have all fled and passed away — they have forsaken me." 
But there was no time until that moment of fearful darkness 
came, when all the load of guilt rested upon him and for our 
sins he was smitten, that his spirit was crushed, and he called 
out, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?" All 
else might go — it were little : " Why hast thou forsaken me ?" 
But it is over ; the darkness is past ; the load is borne ; and I 
hear him say, " It is finished ;" he bows his head and dies. 
There is publicity in this event. It demanded public investiga- 
tion, it received investigation. There was not only the mental 



148 SERMONS. 

agony united with the agony of crucifixion, but there was the 
voluntary giving up of his life ; yet, lest there might be some 
suspicion, to all this was added the positive proof of the fact 
of his death. When the limbs of the other two who were 
crucified were broken, and he was perceived to be dead, the 
soldier thrust the spear into his side, and there came out both 
water and blood. There is a peculiarity in the sacred writ- 
ings. A little incident, that seems to be mentioned without 
purpose, becomes the strongest possible proof, not only of the 
fact of Christ's death, but of the nature of his death. "When 
that sentence was written the human frame was not under- 
stood, the circulation of the blood was not discerned. An- 
atomists had not then, as they have now, unveiled the human 
body ; the great science of pathology had not yet been clearly 
taught to man ; and yet in that sentence we have almost a 
world of meaning. For it is well attested now that where 
persons die from violent mental emotion, by what is termed a 
ruptured heart, there is always formed a watery secretion 
around that organ. This fact was not known to the soldier 
who lifted up the spear and pierced the body; but so much 
water had secreted around the heart that he saw it issuing 
forth, unstained by blood, which showed that the heart had 
been crushed by agony within. 

When taken from the cross he was placed in the sepulchre. 
His friends had given him up, most of his disciples had forsak- 
en him ; some of them saw him die, and after he was crucified 
they sank into despair. They were returning to their for- 
mer employments ; but his enemies remembered he had said 
he would rise the third day, and they put a guard about the 
tomb. The Roman soldiers were there ; the seal was on the 
stone; they made everything secure. Here, again, God or- 
dered that we should have abundant proof of Christ's cruci- 
fixion. He was crucified on Friday, which was to them the 
last day of the week, resting in the grave on our Saturday, 
which is their Sabbath, and then comes the first day of the 
week, our Sabbath morning, made our Sabbath because of 
Christ's resurrection from the dead. There came an humble 
visitor to the tomb, Mary Magdalene ; she had been healed 



THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 149 

of much, forgiven much, and she loved much. Mary, the 
mother of James, came also ; but there had been strange com- 
motions elsewhere. Heaven had been gathering about that 
grave. Angels had been watching there ; they had seen the 
Roman guard, the shining spear, and the polished shield; 
the j had seen that Christ was held as a prisoner by the great- 
est powers on earth. I see the angel commissioned of God 
coming down from the opening doors of heaven ; he hastens to 
the city, to the sepulchre ; when they behold him coming the 
keepers shake ; they are as dead men ; he rolls away the stone, 
and sets himself by the mouth of the grave. Christ, girding 
himself with all the power of his divinity, rises ; he leads cap- 
tivity oaptive, tears the crown from the head of death, and 
makes light the darkness of the tomb. What a moment was 
that ! As the grave yields its prey, Christ, charged with be- 
ing an impostor, is proved to be the Son of God with power; 
it is the power of his resurrection from the dead. 

Thus Christ became the firstfrnits of them that slept. But, 
to give the amplest proof of his resurrection, he lingered on 
earth to be seen of men, and to be seen in such a manner as 
to show that he was still the Saviour Christ. In my younger 
days I used often to wonder why it was that Mary Magdalene 
came first to the sepulchre, with the mother of James ; why he 
should appear to them ; but in later days I have thought it was 
to show that he was the Saviour still ; that the same nature 
was there which had made him stoop to the lowliest of the 
low — the power that enabled him to heal the guiltiest of 
the guilty ; that that power, that compassion, were with him 
still. Though now raised beyond death and triumphing over 
hell, he still had within him the Saviour's heart. Methinks I 
see, when Peter has run in anxiety to tell the news, Mary re- 
maining there ; she cannot fully comprehend it all ; the grave 
is open, the napkins are there ; he is not there, but is risen. 
And yet there is darkness resting upon her mind ; she cannot 
conceive, it seems to me, fully, the resurrection of the dead. 
She stands wondering, when she hears a voice behind her, 
which says, " Woman, why weepest thou ?" Bathed in tears, 
she turns round and sees the man standing, and thinking him 



150 SERMONS. 

to be the gardener, and supposing that be has taken the body 
and carried it off, as not fit to lie in that tomb or be in that 
garden, she says, "If thou hast borne him hence, tell me where 
thou hast laid him, and I will take him away." If he must not 
lie in this tomb, if he cannot lie in the garden, if, as a male- 
factor, he must be cast out from men, tell me where the body 
is, and I will take it." It was a proof of her love. A voice 
said, "Mary! Mary!" Oh, she recognized it, and her heart 
cried out, " Rabboni, Master!" and then she would have thrown 
herself at his feet, and bathed those feet again with her tears, 
but he said, " Touch me not ; for I am not yet ascended to 
my Father; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I 
ascend unto my Father and your Father; and to my God, and 
your God." See the compassion of the Saviour! and then 
that message of the angels ! " Tell the disciples, and Peter." 
Why send a message to him ? Because he cursed and swore 
and denied the Master. The other disciples might have 
said, if Christ is risen, he may receive and bless us all, but 
Peter is gone, hopelessly and. irretrievably gone ; he that for- 
sook his Master and denied him, there is no hope for him. 
And yet, say the heavenly messengers, " Go and tell the disci- 
ples, and Peter " — poor backslidden Peter. Jesus knew his sor- 
row, and almost felt the throbbings of his broken heart. He 
may be a disciple still — may come back and be saved through 
the boundless love of Christ. Oh, the compassion of the Son 
of God ! Thank God that Peter's Saviour is on the throne this 
morning. ISTot only was he seen by these, but he met with 
the disciples journeying by the way, and explained the script- 
ures to them ; and as they met in the upper room he was there. 
"While the doors were shut he came into the midst of them and 
said, " Peace !" breathed on them, and said, " Receive ye the 
Holy Ghost." Again he met with them, and said to Thomas, 
" Reach hither thy fingers, and be not faithless, but believ- 
ing." Then afterwards he was seen by five hundred ; and 
from the Mount of Olives, while the disciples were gathered 
about him, he was received up into glory. They saw him, 
and as he went he blessed them. The last vision that ever 
men had of the Son of God before he ascended to heaven was 



THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 151 

of him extending his hands in blessing. Oh, my Saviour hath 
thus gone up, and he dropped from those outstretched hands 
a blessing which falls to-day like the gentle dew all over the 
earth; it reaches heart after heart. It has reached apostles, 
martyrs, fathers and mothers and little children, and, thank 
God, the heavenly grace, as from those outstretched hands, is 
coming down on our assembly this very morning. On this 
glad day blessings are dropping upon us from this risen Christ. 

Let us look at a few of the results that flow to us from these 
facts, thus sustained, of his death and resurrection from the 
dead : 

In the first place, it establishes all Bible declarations. It 
had been predicted that he should not stay in the grave, and 
when he arose it put the seal to the Old Testament as the 
Word of God. The prophecy in him fulfilled gave glorious 
proof that the other parts of it should be also fulfilled as the 
word of an unchanging Jehovah. 

Again, in his resurrection we see a proof of his divine pow- 
er. No man hath risen from the dead by his own might. 
All died, from Adam to Moses, with the exception of Enoch 
and Elijah, who, because of their devotion and acknowledg- 
ment of the divine head, themselves became prophets of a 
coming Saviour. He rose by his own power. He conquered 
death and the grave. Jupiter is represented by an old classic 
writer as saying to the lesser gods that if all of them combined 
together and should endeavor to throw down his throne — if 
all power was arrayed against him — he, by his own might, 
would be able to overcome them. What was fiction with the 
ancients becomes gloriously realized in Christ. Take all the 
powers of men, the Jewish power, the Roman power; the 
power of learning, of art, of public opinion ; take all the pow- 
ers of earth and hell, and combine them against the Saviour, 
and, without one effort, without one single apparent move- 
ment — the sleeper lies in death, his eyes are sealed, and, as if 
all unconscious, for the warning had not been given before — 
in an instant those eyes are opened, that frame rises, the grave 
yields up its prey, death retires conquered, and Christ demon- 
strates himself to be the ruler of the whole universe. He 



152 SERMONS. 

made the earth to tremble, the sun to put on sackcloth, the 
very air to grow dark, the graves to open, the dead to come 
forth, and proclaimed himself to be the conqueror of death 
and the grave. So we have proof of his being the Son of 
God with power. 

In that resurrection from the dead we have a pledge of our 
own resurrection. Christ has become the firstfruits of them 
that slept. You know the figure of the firstfruits as under- 
stood by the Jews. Their religion was connected with the 
seasons of the year — with the harvests ; one of their feasts 
was called the feast of the firstfruits, and was on this wise : 
When the first heads of grain began to ripen in the field, and 
there was thus a pledge of harvest, they cut off those first 
ripened heads and went up to Jerusalem. Before that the 
grain was not crushed, no bread was baked from it, and noth- 
ing was done to appropriate it to man's use until first the 
ripened heads were brought up to Jerusalem and presented to 
the Lord as a thank-offering. He was acknowledged as Lord 
of the harvest, and these grains were laid up as a thanksgiv- 
ing before God. They were the firstfruits. Then they went 
away to the fields, and all through Judea the sickle was thrust 
in, the grain was reaped and gathered into sheaves, and when 
the harvest was secured they baked the bread and offered 
it to God. Still later, they came up to the same temple, 
where the firstfruits had been laid, and they held a feast of 
thanksgiving, and shouted harvest home. Christ rose as the 
firstfruits, and there is to be a glorious resurrection. Christ 
came, the first man to rise by his own power from the tomb, 
having snatched the crown from death, having thrown light 
into the grave. He goes up in the midst of the shouts of an- 
gels ; the heavens open before him ; there is the altar ; there 
is the throne, and around it stand the seraphim and the cher- 
ubim ; and Christ enters, the victor, and sits down upon the 
throne, from henceforth expecting until his enemies be made 
his footstool. He is the firstfruits, but the angels are to be sent 
out like the reapers, and by and by the harvest will be gath- 
ered in. As Christ, the firstfruits, passed through the grave 
and went up to glory, so there shall come from their sleeping 



THE KESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 153 

dust in Asia, in Africa, in Europe, and in America — oh, there 
shall come, in the time of the glorious harvest — the uprising 
of humanity, when all they who are Christ's, waking from 
their long sleep, shall rise and shall shout the harvest home ! 
Thank God, at that time none shall be wanting. Oh, they 
come, they come, from the nations of the past and from the 
generations yet unborn ! I see the crowd gathering there. 
Behold, the angels are waiting, and, as the hosts rise from the 
dead, they gather about their Redeemer. Christ invites his 
followers to overcome and sit down with him on his throne 
as he overcame and sat down with the Father on his throne. 
In that is the pledge of our resurrection from the dead. Can 
I not suffer, since Christ suffered ? Can I not die, since Christ 
died ? Let the grave be my resting-place, for Christ rested 
there. Is it cold ? The warmth of his animation is in it. Is 
it lonely % He shall be beside me in all his spirit's power. 
Does the load of earth above me, and beneath which I am 
placed, press upon me? Christ can burst the tomb ; he will 
burst the tomb, though deep it be, and I shall rise through 
his almightiness. Yes, let the malice of men be turned 
against me ; let me be taken, if it must be, as a martyr, and 
bound to the stake ; let the faggots be kindled, let the flame 
ascend, let my body be burned ; gather my ashes, grind my 
bones to powder, scatter them on the ocean's surface ; or car- 
ry those ashes to the top of yon volcano and throw them 
within its consuming fire, and yet I can sing: 

"God, my Redeemer, lives, 
And ever, from the skies, 
Looks down and watches all my dust 
Till he shall bid it rise." 

Thank God, it may be scattered on the wings of the wind — 
Christ is everywhere present — and it shall rise again by his 
own almighty power. And what is it to sleep awhile, if I am 
Christ's % To die, if I am like Christ in dying ? and be buried, 
if I am like Christ in being buried ? I trust I shall be like 
him when he comes forth in his glory. I shall be like him, 
for the apostle says : " we shall be like him, for we shall see 
him as he is ;" " we shall be changed from glory into glory," 



154 SERMONS. 

into the same image as by the Spirit of God. It would be a 
great transformation to be changed from saints to angels, from 
angels to cherubim, from cherubim to seraphim, from glory 
to glory ; but, thank God, we shall not stop there, for the 
change shall go on from glory to glory until we shall be trans- 
formed into the likeness of the Son of God, brighter than an- 
gels ever shone, more glorious than were ever cherubim. 
We shall sit beside him, for he hath made room for us. Then 
if we can calmly look at Death and face him because his 
strength has been overcome, it reconciles us to parting a little 
while with friends. A father and a mother may be taken 
from us, but we shall see them again ; we shall not sleep for- 
ever. The little ones that drop from our arms, we can al- 
most see them this morning ; some of us can almost feel them 
in our arms — can see the glance of the beautiful eye, and 
hear the sound of the little prattling lip ; they seem to be 
with us now. We followed them to the grave, and we left 
them there, where the winter's storm has been howling about 
them. Sometimes loneliness like that of the storm has swept 
over our hearts and sunk us almost in despair ; but through 
Christ's resurrection we see our children safe in the Saviour's 
arms. They shall rise all glorious from the tomb in the 
morning of the resurrection ; we shall find them, for Jesus is 
the resurrection and the life. All this comes to us from the 
rising of Christ. He died once ; he dies no more ; he sits 
on the throne of everlasting dominion ; his kingdom is an 
eternal kingdom 5 and as he died once and has risen to die 
no more, so when we have died once and gone to the grave, 
and we come up safely on the other side, thank God, death 
is passed forever ; we shall then put our feet on the neck of 
the King of Terrors, and shall be able to say : 

"O grave, where is thy victory? 
O death, where is thy sting?" 

Looking at the resurrection of Christ, we exclaim, thanks 
be unto God, who hath given us the victory. Thank God for 
a spiritual body. Here some of us long to triumph over nat- 
ure. We would grasp, if we could, angelic wisdom, but our 



THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 155 

brows will ache with pain, our frames decay, our eyes grow 
dim, our hearing fail. This flesh of ours will not bear hours of 
painful study and seasons of protracted labor, but, thank God, 
in the resurrection a spiritual body will be given to us, pure, 
ethereal, holy. Oh, what knowledge shall flash upon us! 
what light! what spirituality and power! Then we shall 
not need to ask an angel anything. We shall know as we are 
known. Jesus will be our teacher; the everlasting God, the 
man whose name is Wonderful, the Counsellor, the Prince of 
Peace. He himself shall be our leader. 

Then rejoice in God. Dry up those tears. Cast away the 
downcast look. Child of the dust, you are an heir of glory. 
There is a crown all burnished for you ; there is a mansion 
ready for you ; there is eternal glory for you ; angels are to 
be your servants, and you are to reign with the King of 
Kings forever. But while you wait on earth be witnesses for 
God ; attest the glory of your Master ; rise in the greatness 
of his strength ; go onward in your heavenly career, and be as 
pure as your ascended head is pure. Be active in works of 
mercy ; be angels of light, be flames of fire ; go on your mis- 
sion of charity, and convert the world unto God before you 
go up higher. When you go, not only go forward to present 
yourselves, but may every one of you be able to say : " Here 
am I, and those whom thou hast given me." 



IX. 

Cknuttts nf CJjrtBttnn Cjjnrnrter. 



ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 

"And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost." 
' ' For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. " — Acts 
vi. 5 and xi. 24. 

These words, descriptive, the first of Stephen and the sec- 
ond of Barnabas, are selected this morning for the purpose of 
considering the elements of Christian power. When we to- 
day ask what are the characteristics which we desire for the 
Church, many of us very naturally respond, " We desire 
strong, well-cultured men in the ministry — men of eloquence 
and power to draw and to fix the attention of large audiences ; 
and in the members men of comprehensive views — men of 
means, men of influence and social power." Whatever may 
be the value of these qualities, it must occur even to the cas- 
ual reader of the Holy Scriptures, that such are not the char- 
acteristics described by the apostles in noting the important 
men of the early Christian Church. Here the elements are 
three — goodness, fulness of faith and of the Holy Ghost. Not 
that we suppose the other qualities are worthless. Men, 
as men, require all these for the accomplishment of their 
work in life. That a man may be an apt and successful me- 
chanic he must have added to natural intellect skill in his 
craft. That a man may perform great works in the world he 
needs both means and influence ; and all these can be employed 
secondarily in advancing the Redeemer's kingdom also. But 
that which pertains to Christianity as distinguished from or- 
dinary life, that which is superadded to ordinary mental en- 
dowments and to ordinary social qualifications, is the special 
form of character described in Holy Writ. 

It is said of Barnabas that he was a good man. This is not, 
in the context, said of St. Stephen, and yet it is implied in 



160 SERMONS. 

what the apostle directed, "Look ye out among you seven 
men of honest report;" and among these men, thus of honest 
report, he was selected. Now, Christianity differs from many 
other systems in that goodness of character is the basis of all 
usefulness. If we look at Paganism, it distinguished between 
what might be termed the religious life and the moral life. 
The religious life consisted in offering sacrifices, visiting tem- 
ples, performing vows made. The moral life, displayed in 
the transactions of business and relationships of man to man, 
was an entirely different affair. Hence, in the very gods they 
worshipped there were to be found fraud and strife and vio- 
lence and lust. Their deities were patrons of crime. Among 
the gods they worshipped one was a patron of thieves, and 
the most obscene rites characterized oftentimes their temple 
service. So, also, if we pass to Mohammedanism, we find 
something of the same separation of morality and religion. 
You may travel with the shepherds through Oriental lands, 
and they will be careful to pray five times a day. The mat 
or piece of carpet will be spread upon the ground in the wil- 
derness or by the wayside ; he will bow on his knees, and 
touch his forehead to the earth, and go through all the cer- 
emonial of worship, crying out, " There is no god but God, 
and Mohammed is his prophet," and yet at the same time 
will be ready, at any favorable moment, to rob you, or likely 
to plunge a dagger into your heart. The idea of a religious 
life distinct from moral conduct runs through all this system. 
So, also, in countries which are purely or chiefly under Roman 
Catholic sway, the same idea obtains. You may visit Mexico 
or Central America or Cuba, and you shall find the people 
very devout in worship in the cathedrals or in the churches. 
The priests themselves, who worship at the altar, will leave 
the church, and, on the Lord's day, may be found playing at 
cards or visiting the places of public amusement, separating 
entirely between moral duties and the religions life. 

True Christianity differs from all this. It teaches, it is 
true, the observance of the forms of devotion. Man must 
come to God's house, and must engage in singing and in 
prayer ; but, at the same time, all these should prepare him 



ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 161 

for his moral duties. He must be honest in his dealings as 
man with man ; he must be faithful in the engagements which 
he shall make ; he must regard all the relative rights of so- 
ciety ; he must be true in his domestic relations ; as a citi- 
zen, true to his country ; and, if a man engaged in world- 
wide operations, true to all with whom he comes in contact. 
This must he be if he be a true Christian ; he must be a good 
man. And he who lays claim to Christian character, who 
claims to be under divine influence, and is not careful with 
regard to his daily walk, his words and conduct, has no right 
to make such a claim. He may be an enthusiast; he may be 
a fanatic; he may profess to be under the influence of the 
Divine Spirit, but he lacks the basis of all Christianity ; he is 
not a good man. I do not say that goodness is, in this respect, 
distinct from faith and the Holy Ghost. That a man may 
have the elements of goodness he needs faith, and he needs, 
also, the operations of the Holy Spirit upon his heart. These 
are interblended one with the other ; but, at the same time, 
we consider goodness as the foundation of all Christian char- 
acter. 

Next to goodness a life of faith gives Christian power. A 
man may be a very good man, but he may accomplish very 
little in the world. There are persons in every community 
of whom we speak, not exactly disrespectfully, but very nearly 
so. When asked respecting them, we say, " They are very 
good kind of men ;" by which we seem to intimate that they 
are mere ciphers in the world. They are negatively good ; 
they do no wrong ; they may be amiable, quiet, and true ; 
and yet they accomplish nothing for society. The world is 
none the better for their living in it, save by their personal 
example and their humble walk in life. To this goodness of 
character, if there be power, there must be added, as I have 
said, faith. Faith takes a man out of himself, both as to his 
thoughts and as to his plans. That which produces faith 
comes from abroad, though faith itself be an act of the mind. 
I believe there is such a land as Spain, though I have never 
seen it; but geographers write of it, historians tell of it, 
and travellers have described it, and the telegraphic reports 

11 



162 SERMONS. 

bring me tidings from it. I believe there is such a country ; 
but the tidings from without must come to me as the source 
of my faith. The realm of faith is outside of my senses and 
my observation. " Faith cometh by hearing ;" it respects that 
which lies away from me. It may be the visible that I have 
not seen, or it may be the invisible ; it may be the past of 
thousands of years ago. or the past of yesterday ; it may be 
the future of ages to come, or the future of to-morrow. All 
these alike are the subjects of faith. 

Thus, as faith, in its prompting, comes from without, so, 
too, faith, acting upon a man's character, leads him out of 
himself. He takes a view of the world about him and the 
world to come ; he studies what may be accomplished ; what 
plans may be set in operation to benefit mankind. As we 
have heard of Spain, so you have meetings to send the Bible 
and religious knowledge to Spain. Faith, taking hold, finds 
a sphere for work, and it leads to action that goes beyond 
what you see day by day. Now, faith may have respect either 
to our own personal characters, to our own connection with 
the universe about us, or to that which is wholly in the un- 
seen, spiritual sphere. 

That faith which justifies reaches the individual character. 
We are justified by faith in Christ. Faith goes to Calvary, 
and takes hold of the Lamb of God ; we see him suffering, 
bleeding, and dying for us. Eighteen hundred years have 
passed, but there he pleads in the garden. We see him among 
the old olive-trees; the shadows of night come upon him; he 
is upon the ground ; a burden rests on his heart, and the sweat, 
like great drops of blood, runs down his face to the ground. 
Why all this agony ? I draw near, and I find he prays for me. 
Yonder he is on the cross, and a thief on either hand, dying 
for his crime. ~No crime is on Christ's soul, no stain on his 
heart ; and yet the burden of the world is upon him. 

I stand there and learn it was my sins that oppressed the 
Saviour's heart; "the chastisement of my peace was upon him," 
and then I can add : " With his stripes I am healed." Faith 
takes hold of the Son of God ; he bears the load for me, and 
makes my ransom possible ; he washes away my sins, and I am 



ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 163 

saved. Thus faith becomes the instrument of my justification. 
By taking hold of the distant, "the heavenly, the divine, I am 
released from all past stains by trust in Jesus. So, too, per- 
sonal faith gives me the consciousness of a present Saviour 
purifying my heart. Habits press upon me, associations 
have power over me ; but when faith takes hold of a present 
Saviour, able to save to the uttermost all that call upon him, 
when weak and oppressed I remember the promise is, " To 
that man will I look that is of an humble and contrite heart, 
and that trembles at my word ;" I look unto Jesus ; I hear 
him calling: " Look unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and be 
ye saved." I look up unto him, and I am saved from my pol- 
lution and my guilt, and then I can say: "We have an advo- 
cate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous. If we 
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins 
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Faith, then, 
gives me a present Saviour. 

But, then, there is more than this personal experience. 
Faith justifies, and I have peace with God. It leads me to 
enlarged action. 1 find myself placed where there is work 
to be done. Christ came to redeem this world, to buy it back 
again from the dominion of Satan. Sometimes, in my fear- 
fulness, when I estimate merely human agency, I am ready to 
say: "'The world can never be saved." Can Romanism be 
enlightened ? Can Mohammedanism be done away ? Can 
corrupt systems be reformed? Can mankind be regenerated? 
Is not society rushing towards ruin ? Faith comes to my re- 
lief, and while I feel the power of man to be insufficient, 
when mine eyes are opened and I look out and see the power 
of the mighty God, when I consider that God has pledged 
himself that he will give to Christ the heathen as his inherit- 
ance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession, 
I know it will be done. My faith takes hold of it just as 
surely as I believe, when I see the foundation of a church 
laid, that it will rise. I look at the plan of the architect, and 
I see w T here the windows and doors are to be, how the towers 
are to rise, and I say the church will be finished. So, I look 
at the temple of the Church, whose foundations are laid, and 



164 SERMONS. 

I know that the top-stone will be brought with the shout- 
ings of "grace, grace unto it." It is faith gives me this con- 
fidence. 

So, too, in jour work in the Church. As active men, you 
lay large foundations; you say certain things ought to be 
done — where are the means? The man without faith says, 
"Nothing can be accomplished;" but the man of faith says, 
" The gold and the silver are God's, and the cattle on a thou- 
sand hills. If the work is the Lord's, if it is his will it should 
be done, let man go forward as far as he can, and God will 
accomplish the rest." That is the language of faith, and the 
men of faith have always so lived. So, too, faith takes hold 
of the future. It looks at w T hat shall be; it looks at all the 
invisible agencies that God employs. Now, man has faith in 
various degree. He may have it, as our Saviour says, as a 
grain of mustard-seed — that is, an exceedingly small faith. 
He is able to accomplish something, but the Christian who 
has power is not only a man who has faith as a grain of mus- 
tard-seed — a little only — but, as to the government, power, 
and determination of God to conquer this world, he is a man 
full of faith. "What a world of meaning is in that expression 
— "full of faith!" You have known men who were full of 
business. They never could shake the thoughts of business 
off when they went to their families. "When they woke up in 
the morning, it was business ; at table, it was business ; all the 
time they were full of business, and there was no time for any- 
thing else. 

If a man could be so full of faith that it would influence 
him everywhere; if he had great thoughts of a God all about 
him, great thoughts of God working in the world, walking on 
the mountains, stopping on the plains, holding in his hand 
the powers of society, changing, transforming, and regenerat- 
ing mankind, using intellect, eloquence, wealth, social power, 
everything for the advancement of his kingdom ; if he were 
so full of faith that he looked out upon God in the w T orld, in 
history, in government, in society, and in the Church; if he 
saw everywhere the whole heavens and the earth flaming as 
with the divine presence; if he felt the angels were around 



ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 165 

him, and if the curtain of the invisible were lifted, so that he 
could behold the mighty spirits doing the commands of God 
— here, the galleries of the blessed looking down on earth — 
there, loved ones beckoning onward, and saying, "Do thy 
work faithfully; the journey is almost over; a few days only 
remain ; strain every nerve ; keep the eye fixed on the cross, 
get more power from above ; work for Jesus " — oh ! if a man 
could have his eyes opened to all this, and hear, as he might, 
voices calling him, he would be full of faith, full of life v full 
of energy, and full of power. 

But not only is fulness of faith a power for the Christian 
life, but there is an additional element — fulness of the Holy 
Ghost. As I said of goodness, so I repeat here, by way of 
caution — I do not mean that a man may have great faith with- 
out the operation of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit works faith 
in the heart, and faith takes hold of spiritual influences; the 
two mingle together, and yet we can consider the Holy Ghost as 
distinct from the comforts of the Holy Spirit. But that there 
may be true Christian power there must be not only faith, 
but the Holy Spirit. When the Scriptures speak of the Holy 
Ghost as distinct from faith, it is chiefly in signifying the com- 
forting influences of the Spirit. Thus, Jesus says : " If I go, 
I will send the Comforter unto you, and he shall bring all 
things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto 
you." The Spirit imparts a consciousness of peace, of love, 
and of joy. The man who has the Holy Ghost is a joyous 
Christian ; he is a happy man in all the walks of life — he is 
happy, because God's Spirit is with him. A consciousness 
that he is the son of God rules his heart. Faith takes hold 
of the Saviour, as I have said, but it is an intellectual appre- 
hension — it is the hold of a trembling hand ; but let the Spir- 
it come into the heart, and faith seems easy. Christ is there, 
comfort is there, peace flows like a river, and righteousness is 
as the waves of the sea. The man's heart is joyous, because 
he is a son of God. 

We sometimes sing: 

"Oh! how happy are they 
Who their Saviour obey, 



166 SERMONS. 

And have laid up their treasures above! 

Tongue can never express 

The sweet comfort and peace 
Of a soul in its earliest love." 

Can yon go on with me and say : 

"That sweet comfort was mine, 

When the favor divine 
I received through the blood of the Lamb ! 

When my heart first believed, 

What a joy I received — 
What a heaven in Jesus's name! 
******* 

Of my Saviour possessed, 

I was perfectly blessed, 
As if filled with the fulness of God " ? 

Can yon sing that from the depths of your heart? If so, 
you know what it is to have the Holy Spirit imparting peace 
and comfort and joj r . You go onward singing — the sun 
shines brightly on your face, the very trees of the woods seem 
to clap their hands before God, and the world is joyful, be- 
cause illuminated by the smile of Jehovah. That is the com- 
fort of the Spirit. That Holy Spirit gives also a foretaste of 
joys to come. You look to heaven with glad anticipations be- 
cause you can sing, when you think of the blessed Saviour, 

"We two are so joined, 
He'll not live in glory 
And leave me behind." 

You think of the blessed home and the saints that are there, 
and you know that you are one with them in Christ Jesus. 
You are of the family, although one of the younger children, 
and the Saviour forgets none of his household. 

Now, to have the Spirit is to have this comfort; but what 
is it to be full of the Holy Spirit? That is the fulness, of 
joy ; I take it to be such a consciousness of the indwelling of 
the Spirit as takes away all fear, all anxiety, and makes one 
feel at home, if I may reverently use the expression, with the 
divine character. God is with us; we are with God; Christ 
in us, the hope of glory. O man of the world, if you could 
have such a consciousness that Christ w T as in you, filling rea- 
son, imagination, and your whole being, what would you not 



ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 167 

give? Ah! if you had this, you would not exchange it for 
the world's treasure. You may be full of the Spirit, and 
when a man is full of the Spirit how joyous is he ! Moses' 
face shone when he was on the mountain — God was with him. 
Stephen's face shone as though he were an angel, for the glory 
of God was with him. You have sometimes seen the faces 
of the dying irradiated with this glory ; you have seen the 
Christian coming out of his closet, where he had been com- 
muning with God. What light rests on the countenance ! Liv- 
ing in such a state, he says, "Away with all peevishness, all 
fretf ulness, all anger, all dissatisfaction, and all sense of an- 
noyance." He dwells on the verge of heaven, and his counte- 
nance beams with anticipations of bliss. That is what it is to 
be full of the Holy Ghost. Now, these are the elements of 
power — goodness, faith, and the Holy Ghost. 

But you may ask me, possibly, why are these the elements 
of Christian character? I answer, there can be no real Chris- 
tian power without them ; for, when you look at the object 
of Christianity, what is it ? It is to conquer the hearts of 
men ; and, in doing so, it deals not with the material. Now, 
if you purpose to blast rocks, you know precisely what you 
must have. You must have the implements with which you 
can drill, you must have the bursting-force of powder or nitro- 
glycerine. You must measure the work to be done, and have 
power sufficient to accomplish it, and you gather the means 
of doing so. But when you come to act on mind, what can 
affect it but great thoughts and spiritual power? You have 
temptations in your heart that you have tried to conquer a 
thousand times, but you have always failed, and you know 
nothing can subdue that heart of yours but the God who 
made it. He can ; he made it, and he can remake it ; he 
moulded it, and he can transform it. Religion offers that. 
Now, if there is to be a power that shall take hold of men, 
faith must reach out after that power. The conversion of my 
children is hopeless without God ; the conversion of my friend 
is hopeless without God; the transformation of society is hope- 
less without God. But it is my faith that recognizes divine 
power, that makes me take my children in my arms to God ; 



168 SERMONS. 

that makes me take my friends and my congregation in the 
arms of my faith before the inner sanctuary, knowing that 
God has power to reach, to change, and to transform their 
natures. So Christian congregations come together in faith, 
and hence God is pleased with the exercise of faith because it 
takes hold of him. Without faith it is impossible to please 
him. It is well to build churches, but you will fail unless 
faith takes hold of God ; if you do not bring him into the 
circle all your efforts will be for nought. 

Then, again, the Holy Spirit is necessary because man works 
by sympathy. If the heart of my friend shall recognize God 
to be present, he will recognize it more easily through me. 
If I have the divine presence manifestly, my friend will feel 
assured that he may have it. The presence of a good man 
seems to bring God near us. Hence, in moments of darkness 
and affliction, we wish a good man to be with us. While we 
are seeking after God we wish some one on whom we think 
God shines, some one in whom we think God's Spirit dwells. 
We wish his prayers, his counsels, and his comforting influ- 
ence. A man who goes through society manifesting the life 
of God in his soul becomes a power by the words which he 
utters, and, if I may so speak, by the very atmosphere that 
seems to surround him. God is with him, and other men 
seem to feel that God may be with them also. In addressing 
you this morning, I think I may say you all admit that you 
must be good ; you have learned that from childhood. You 
think you can govern your conduct, and you are striving, I 
trust, after both inward and outward purity. But I look 
over the Church, and I painfully see everywhere a lack of 
faith and the Holy Ghost. It seems to me the Church is al- 
most barren. "Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, 
shall he find faith on the earth ?" The mountains are to be 
removed ; who has faith ? The trees are to be plucked up ; 
who has faith % Strong men are to be brought to Christ ; 
who has faith % Great works are to be performed ; who has 
faith? 

Now, the relationship of these two phrases, "full of faith 
and of the Holy Ghost," may be worth a moment's considera- 



ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 169 

tion. In the passage quoted it is said of Stephen, he was full 
of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and of Barnabas it is said, he 
was full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. Is this transposition 
of words a mere matter of chance, or is there a lesson taught 
ns in it ? When I consider Stephen, I find he was selected to 
do the business of the Church. It was said of him, "he was 
full of faith and of the Holy Ghost." Barnabas went to exhort 
and to comfort the believers, and it was said of him, "he was 
a man full of the Holy Ghost and of faith." I seem to see a 
peculiar relationship in these words. Faith is needed chiefly 
for the active duties of life — for the accomplishment of great 
works — for taking hold of material agencies, and pressing 
them into the service of the Master. Here is the realm of 
faith. But when I would bring to others a sense of a present 
Saviour I need the Holy Ghost. If I am sent to command 
an army I need faith, broad plans, and confidence ; but when 
the battle is over, and the wounded man is dying, faith is 
not needed then so much as the influence of the Spirit to 
enable him to feel that God is there. Let me carry in my 
soul a present Saviour, take hold of his hand, get into electric 
union with him, if possible, and then the light that lights my 
eyes seems to pass from me towards his dying eye, and there, 
where the opening in the cloud is visible, I say to my dying 
friend, " Oh ! look to Jesus on the cross and on the throne ; 
look to Calvary, look to glory." 

Here is the relationship. I think I see it further in the life 
of Stephen himself. When Stephen was distributing bread 
to the widows, and had work to do for the Church, he was 
full of faith. His work was over by and by, and then he 
made his wonderful address. The Jewish council gazed at 
him, and as he came to the close of it he knew that his time 
was over. They were gnashing on him with their teeth ; 
their sentence of death was written on their brows, and, as 
they looked at him, his face shone as the face of an angel. 
He looked up into heaven, and said, " I see the heavens 
opened, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God." His 
work of faith was done, and lie needed comfort. God, who 
distributes his gifts just as they are needed, and who had 



170 SERMONS. 

given Stephen faith to do and dare for Christ, now that the 
work was over, opens the heavens, and he, filled with the 
Holy Ghost, looks clear up to the throne of God, feeling that 
there was his home, his Saviour, his abiding portion. Faith 
had done its part, and the Holy Ghost filled him and prepared 
him for heaven. 

There is no work which ought to be done but it can be 
done. What ought to be done can be done, because God has 
all power, and he has given to man the right to call upon him 
for that power. He has put as in a bank this gracious om- 
nipotence of his, and he has given us checks upon it, and tells 
us that where two or three shall unite as touching anything, 
it shall be done for them — that is, anything that ought to be 
done. Where the Church undertakes to do what God desires, 
it can be accomplished, though it may seem to be like the 
transformation of the world ; because faith takes hold of it. 
You will see men in the community who change the face of 
the world by faith. With this power, widows who have no 
means found your orphan asylums, build your hospitals, and 
educate your poor children. I tell you, when you look over 
earth's history, you find that the grandest agencies of this 
world have been begun by men of small means. It has been 
in Christ they have worked ; they have gone forward to do 
what Christ commands. 

I would not speak boastfully of Methodism ; and yet I may 
draw a lesson from it for my congregation. What would 
Methodism have been in this world of ours without faith? 
Where, without this, would the money have come from to 
build churches and seminaries and orphan-schools? When 
Wesley began, he began without means, but he said : " This 
ought to be done." He laid the foundation, and God helped 
him to raise the superstructure. Many of you, doubtless, 
have heard the incident told of him when endeavoring to 
found an orphan-school at ^Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He had his 
plans arranged and his workmen engaged, and he was going 
to leave. They desired one hundred pounds for materials, 
but Wesley had not the mone} r . His time was fixed for leav- 
ing, but where would the money come from ? Just as he was 



ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 171 

about to go a Quaker called upon him and said : " John, I 
had a strange dream about thee last night : I thought I saw 
thee with a parcel of little lambs in a storm, and thee was 
trying to shelter them and had no place. I woke up and 
thought of thy orphan-house, and here is my check for one 
hundred pounds." This was just the sum that was wanted. 
God intended that the poor children should be taken care of ; 
so that he put into Wesley's mind the purpose to go forward, 
and placed in the Quaker's pocket the money. God works 
by diverse agencies ; we little know what he is doing in the 
world. He is putting a thought into this heart and a thought 
into that heart. His work is like a mosaic picture. Here 
and there are stones of different colors and shadings, and they 
are scattered all over the earth. There is no picture to be 
seen, but God's Spirit takes hold of the colors and the shad- 
ings, and works by and by a beautiful picture. God saw it 
all, but we could not see it. Faith takes hold, saying, " It is 
God's will this should be done." All the great works of earth 
have been done by faith, the churches planted, the institu- 
tions raised, the great universities founded, the lights that 
shine in the world and are drawing men towards Christ. 

I tell my congregation to-day it is possible to live in the 
sunshine ; it is possible to see the light streaming on the moun- 
tain-tops, and the radiance coming down from heaven. Oh ! 
it is possible to get out of the land of shadows, to get out of 
the valleys, and to climb up the hillsides. Come with me 
this morning, out of the valley ; come where the light shines ; 
come to Nebo and Pisgah. Look over the promised land : 
the shadows are fleeing : you shall see the King in his beauty, 
and the land that is afar off. May God give to my congrega- 
tion the fulness of the Holy Ghost, the down-letting of the 
Spirit that strengthens for every good word and work. Oh ! 
it seems to me, if men knew what there is in Christianity, 
they would all come to the cross. Some of you are hesitat- 
ing; you are afraid there is no power for you, and many 
questionings keep you away. Did you ever come near an elec- 
tric machine ? I remember the feelings I had when I was a 
boy, at the first touch of it. I did not know what strange 



172 SERMONS. 

thing it was ; I was fearful, and had trembling sensations as 1 
approached the apparatus. And yet, just as others took hold 
of the wires and felt the electric currents, so I felt them. 
The law of the Spirit of God is uniform. The same electric- 
ity that thrills you thrills me ; the same magnetism that touch- 
es me can touch you. 

I have been to the cross ; my brethren and sisters have 
been to the cross; and when by faith they have taken hold, 
oh, the divine power that has come to us all! Oh, the chains 
that have fallen off ! The dungeon flamed with light and 
the soul was filled with glory and with God. Your nature is 
the same ; you have the same stains of sin upon you and the 
same need of a Saviour; and the same divine power can 
change you. Come to Jesus this morning; come to the cross 
of Christ ; feel its saving power, and prove what it is to be 
filled with faith and the Holy Ghost. Then, having done 
life's duties, when you come to die, though you may not stand 
where Stephen stood, though the shower of missiles may not 
fall on your head, and you may not have the glorious manifes- 
tations which he had, I can tell you this : that when you come 
to die, Jesus, whom you have loved in life, will love you 
still. He to whom you have lifted your hand to swear alle- 
giance in life will hold that hand when you are going through 
the vale of death. The waters shall not overwhelm you, and 
the fires shall not burn you. You shall have victory, and on 
the other side you shall sing in everlasting glory. God help 
you to be Christians this morning; the Lord help you to con- 
secrate your lives to him, and from this day forward may you 
seek to be filled with faith and the Holy Ghost. 



X. 

€§i feat Cammi00iati. 






THE GEEAT COMMISSION. 



And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given 
unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, 
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost : teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have command- 
ed you : and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. 
Amen."— Matthew xxviii. 18-20. 

These words are selected, this morning, not for the pur- 
pose of discussing the nature of the commission to preach the 
gospel, nor yet the work of preaching the gospel in its de- 
tail, but for the purpose of calling attention to the declaration 
which Christ made with regard to the gift of power which he 
had received, and to that as connected with the promise of his 
presence. I think, if we put ourselves in the place of the 
disciples, we shall see that a declaration of this character was 
exceedingly comforting and eminently necessary. 

The Shepherd had been smitten, and the sheep were scat- 
tered. The Messiah, in whom they had trusted that he 
would be a conquering Redeemer, had been taken by the 
hands of wicked men and crucified and slain. They had seen 
him on the cross; they had known of his being carried to 
the tomb ; he had fallen under the power of the government, 
and yet they had put their trust in him as the Lord of life 
and of glory. How necessary, then, was this declaration — 
that though he had seemed to be weaker than the Jewish power, 
weaker than the Roman authority ; that though he had sunk 
beneath the blows of his persecutors, yet that now, since he 
had risen, all power was given to him ; that he was superior 
now to all opposition — to the kingdoms of the world, and 
was able to care for and protect those who put their trust in 
him. 

It was necessary, because they had already inclined to de- 



176 SERMONS. 

sert the call they had received, and had returned to their 
former employments on the sea of Galilee; their hopes had 
been buried in the tomb of the Master. It was necessary 
that he should cheer and show them that about his cross 
were gathered all the elements of victory. These words were 
comforting, because he promised that he would be with them, 
and so he infused into them a new spiritual life. All this, 
I say, was needed, if they were to go in a happy frame of 
mind to preach the gospel of the Son of God. And Jesus 
seems to have repeated this language, in substance, on differ- 
ent occasions. The passage before us says, " the eleven disci- 
ples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had 
appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped 
him ; but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto 
them, saying: All power is given unto me in heaven and in 
earth." Those who arranged our version of the New Testa- 
ment introduced a paragraph at the next verse, as if the com- 
mission, " Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations," had been 
given at another time, because it is repeated under different 
circumstances in another gospel. I have no doubt, however, 
that the words were spoken at this time. St. Mark, in al- 
luding to this declaration, says : " Afterward he appeared 
unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with 
their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed 
not them which had seen him after he was risen. And he 
said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
gospel to every creature." Thus the words of this commis- 
sion were given, as St. Mark records, while they sat at meat. 
St. Luke, while he does not give these words precisely, says 
that he led them up as far as Bethany, having said to them 
first : " Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you : 
but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with 
power from on high. And he led them out as far as to Beth- 
any, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it 
came to pass while he blessed them, he was parted from them 
and carried up into heaven." Luke thus connects this commis- 
sion in substance with his parting from his disciples. In the 
Acts of the Apostles it is said; " Ye shall receive power, after 



THE GREAT COMMISSION. 177 

that the Holy Ghost is come upon you : and ye shall be wit- 
nesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in 
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And 
when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was 
taken up ; and a cloud received him out of their sight." 

This commission, then, whether to preach or to teach, or to 
be witnesses, appears to have been given at different times 
during the abode of Christ on earth, and after his resurrec- 
tion from the dead. And I may connect it, without doing 
violence to the passage, with the scene of his ascension, when 
he parted from his disciples, as he stood with them near Beth- 
any, on the Mount of Olives. The place named in Matthew 
was a mountain in Galilee. I wish to call your attention 
now to a thought showing, as I think, the beautiful relations 
of this declaration to the life of Christ. Methinks I can see 
him as he stood on the mountain surveying the scene of his 
agony and his suffering : beneath him lay the garden where, 
when he prayed, the sweat rolled from his brow as great 
drops of blood. There on the hill was the temple in which 
he had taught, where he had met with foes ; just by the right 
of the city wall was the place where he was crucified, where 
the thieves were executed with him. Yonder was the place 
where the Jewish council met ; here was Pilate's hall ; there 
were the emblems of Koman authority, and from the moun- 
tain-top he looked over them all. The scene of his agony, of 
his sufferings, and of his death was vividly before him. But, 
turning to his disciples who gathered round him, he said : 
"Now, how changed! all power is given unto me. I have 
dominion over Borne and Judea; I have dominion over life 
and over death ; I am not now the suffering Jesus — I am the 
triumphant Messiah." 

But not only so — what a relation does it sustain to the 
scene of the temptation! Then he stood on the mountain- 
top. It is said that the devil had taken him to an exceeding 
high mountain. He showed him from thence all the king- 
doms of the world and all the glory of them. What a sur- 
vey ! Christ born as the babe in Bethlehem, the reputed son 
of the carpenter in Nazareth, a pilgrim who had not where to 

12 



178 SERMONS. 

lay Lis head, who owned nothing on earth, a wanderer to 
and fro, taken to the mountain-top and shown all the king- 
doms of the world. There lay Assyria in its glory, on this 
side Egypt in its pride, there Greece in its literary renown, 
there Rome in the grandeur of warlike power; far beyond 
spread out kingdom after kingdom, and nation after nation. 
The enemy said to Jesus : " All these will I give unto thee if 
thou wilt fall down and worship me." But Jesus refused 
these kingdoms of the earth, and their splendors; he incurred 
the opposition of the prince of the power of the air, he was 
followed with persecution, with reviling, with scourging, and 
finally with death. But he passed through these, and now he 
stands on the mountain-top, and again he surveys the king- 
doms of the world. There they lay spread before him, and he 
saw them at his feet. He had won them all — not by sub- 
mission nor by compromise with the power of darkness. He 
had done his work for men ; he had performed the mission 
which God gave him ; and now, standing on the mountain- 
top, all the powers of earth, all kingdoms, all literature, all 
science, all art, all authority were given to him ; and, looking 
upward as the doors were about to be opened, he said : " All 
power in heaven and in earth is given unto me!" What a 
sublime compensation ! what a fitting scene to close the record 
of his trials ! 

But this declaration, as I said, becomes the basis of the 
Christian commission. Jesus says to his disciples: "All 
power is given unto me in heaven and 'in earth. Go ye, 
therefore," etc. 

The first thought in connection with this commission is 
this : " Go ye, therefore." Who is to go ! These disciples 
w r ere w T eak ; some of them unlearned ; all of them timid. 
They were bidden to go and teach the whole world ; they 
would naturally feel that the world would not recognize their 
authority. Their commission to teach would be asked for, 
they would be summoned to tell why they presumed to in- 
struct mankind. Whether the world would hear or whether 
forbear, Jesus commissions them and says : " All power is given 
unto me; all things are in my hands; all agencies are mine. 



THE GREAT COMMISSION. 179 

I have the right to select the men who shall go and preach, 
the gospel and teach the nations, for all men are mine. It 
is not the tribe of Levi I have chosen ; not the ancient patri- 
archs and prophets; I have not commissioned angels to go 
forth from heaven. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations." 
There is clearly seen not only the right of the Saviour to se- 
lect the disciples who are around him, but in this is implied 
also the selection down to the end of the world ; for he means 
not only those who then stood by his side, but those whom 
he would choose in all ages ; for the words, " I am with you to 
the end of the world," were not limited to their lives, but 
embraced those who should be sent to preach the gospel to 
the end of time. So that, connected with the power and the 
reign of Christ, we find our commission also to go and preach 
the gospel. Men are sent to-day to preach because Jesus has 
the right to appoint his own ambassadors ; he is the Ruler of all 
worlds and the Prince of men. Strange as the selection may 
seem, and however unworthy and feeble the agencies, he has 
the right to take one of us wherever he may find us, and to 
say : " Go, preach the gospel." Though the tongue be stam- 
mering, and though we may feel we have no strength of our 
own, yet when there is connected with the call, " All power 
is given unto me in heaven and in earth, go ye, therefore, 
and preach the gospel," the disciple who is sent is clothed 
with all the endowments for the purpose that the Almighty 
sees fit to give to feeble man, and he is able to preach with 
the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. 

But there is another consideration. Christ proclaims him- 
self to be king of all nations, and he has the right to send 
men into all nations. He rules over Europe, and he has the 
right to send men into Europe. He is Governor of Asia, and 
he has the right to open every door. Here, then, comes the 
authority for our going to the very ends of the earth. Men 
may seek to close doors ; but Jesus sa} r s : " The power is 
mine; I reign over the nations; go ye, therefore, into all 
places of my dominion, even to the ends of the earth. If 
China erects a wall or barrier, leap over it ; if the ports of 
Japan are closed, find a way of entrance; if Africa's sands are 






180 SERMONS. 

burning, I will be with you to chasten the heat, and in the 
wilderness I will make springs to break forth. Go ye into 
all the world, for I am Ruler of all, and no power hath the 
right to resist my sway." See the fitness of his commission. 
" As I have all power, go ; I have dominion everywhere, go 
everywhere." 

As the right to enter is thus given, so will the agencies 
which may be necessary for the execution of the commission 
be given. It may seem to be very difficult to reach the ends 
of the earth. There may be difficulties in language, and in 
having proper provision made; and yet the declaration of 
Jesus comes back: "All power is given unto me in heaven 
and in earth. Go ye, therefore." Are languages in the way ? 
Why, if it be necessary, cloven tongues of fire shall come 
down on the heads of his disciples ; they shall speak with 
"other tongues;" he will open the way by the translations 
which even ungodly men may make. He will ride on the 
wings of commerce, and prepare a highway. He works, as- 
serting his authority, not merely in miracles, but he has been 
sending his ships to the ends of the world. They visit every 
island ; they sail to every port. He has been prompting men 
to build ships; and now, surveying all oceans, all currents, all 
winds, all waves, and all the paths of commerce, he seems to 
cry out : " All this power, all these provisions, are given unto 
me. Go ye, therefore." The languages shall be made plain ; 
the routes of commerce shall be opened for you. If you 
want money, the gold and silver shall be found where my 
hands have laid them — in the bosom of the earth. All means 
shall be given ; all necessary sustenance shall be afforded. 
Go ye, therefore, and preach the gospel to the ends of the 
earth." 

It may be also that these words can be understood in a 
wider signification, as promising his presence to the Church 
in general, though especially to the ministry. To the Church 
in general, for it is founded upon a rock, and the gates of hell 
shall not prevail against it. If all power is given unto Jesus, 
the Church holds in that the assurance of its strength and of 
its glory. How beautiful the expression in the lesson I read : 



THE GREAT COMMISSION. 181 

"I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will de- 
clare the decree : Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen 
for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for 
thy possession." The royal Psalmist seems to have seen the 
Saviour standing on the mountain, and then, as he beheld how 
the kings of the earth were gathered together against Christ, 
he said : " The Lord shall laugh at them ; the Most High 
shall have them in derision; he shall break them in pieces as 
a potter's vessel." And the lesson is given to the governors 
of the world : " Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings ; be in- 
structed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, 
and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, 
and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a 
little." 

Not only is all this power with regard to means and agen- 
cies promised in the commission, but such spiritual influences 
and aids as may be necessary to comfort our hearts. The 
kingdom of Christ in heaven is joined by this declaration 
with the kingdom of Christ on earth. Christ, if I may use 
the expression, w r as the connecting link, and in that promise 
he seemed to bring heaven down towards earth, while by his 
ascension he raised earth towards heaven, and brought them 
very near together. And now when he says, " All power is 
given unto me," if his disciples in going forth shall be sub- 
ject to sorrow, how easy will it be for him to send some one 
who has entered into glory and has seen something of the re- 
wards of the blessed down to earth to whisper to the soul 
cheering thoughts. 

I know not how this is, but it may be so. You and I have 
sometimes had precious thoughts burn in our bosoms ; and also 
our souls have seemed to mount upward, and new strength has 
been given. "We could scarcely tell how this was, but Jesus 
had promised all power needful for us. This much I know, 
he hath the angel bands in his keeping, and " are they not all 
ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be 
heirs of salvation ?" Jesus says : " All power is given unto me." 
If a Michael or a Gabriel was sent in former days to earth to 
strengthen Daniel, he loved Daniel no more than he loves one 



182 SERMONS. 

of his ambassadors to-day. If he sent his angel to shut the 
mouth of the lion in days of old, he hath the same power to 
shut the mouths of lions now. Heaven is as full of angels as 
it was in the days of the prophets. They are as near to earth 
as when they hovered over Bethlehem, or came down to Mount 
Olivet to greet the rising Saviour. They are as near to earth 
now as when one was sent to open the prison doors, and to lead 
Peter out into a wider place. If God suffers us to be put in 
prison, and it is necessary, an angel shall be sent to open the 
door. If we are in darkness, an angel may be sent to give us 
light to shine all round about us. Jesus says : " All power is 
given unto me ; the cherubim and seraphim shall wait before 
me ; go ye, therefore, into all the world. If necessary, angels 
shall be with you ; if it is necessary, Gabriel shall accompany 
you, and Michael shall attend to give you strength." 

Thus, in this declaration of power in heaven and in 
earth, what a treasure there is ! It seems to me I can al- 
most see the disciples as they look away from that mount 
over the earth, coveting to go. It seems to me they could 
say : " Lord, if all power is thine, and thou dost send us, 
we will go." 

As if all that was not sufficient, he adds the promise of his 
own personal presence, and says : " Lo !" — mark it, give strict 
attention to this one point — " Lo ! I am with you alway, even 
to the end of the world." Not only all power besides myself, 
not only all dominions and principalities are pledged to you, 
but I shall accompany you myself, so that you shall never be 
alone. Now, let us look a little at some of the items of this 
" Lo ! I am with you alway." With whom ? As I have said 
before, not merely with the immediate disciples, because they 
are dead ; but with those who were to preach the gospel in 
all ages and in all lands ; and yet, with those disciples as pat- 
terns or types, that we may have instruction and encourage- 
ment. 

And, now, whom was he with ? "I am with you." Who 
were they % With Peter, who had denied him ; with Thom- 
as, who had doubted of him ; with the others who had fol- 
lowed afar off. These were the men. Sometimes, in my 



THE GREAT COMMISSION. 183 

weakness and in the consciousness of my imperfections — 
sometimes, in looking back on the record of my life, and see- 
ing it all stained with misdoings — I feel I can hardly claim 
the promise. I see Jesus was with the ancient worthies — 
with prophets, priests, and kings — but can he be with me? 
But when I think whom he promised to be with, my heart 
takes courage. Though Peter had denied him, and cursed 
and sworn, Jesus says : " Lo ! I am with you, Peter. Go ; not 
only shall the angel open the door for you, but I will be with 
you." He turns to Thomas, and says : " Thomas, you are of 
a doubting spirit ; you had a great many misgivings ; your 
experience was not so clear as that of others ; shadows came 
over you ; you did not believe at first I had risen from the 
dead, and was your Saviour; but, nevertheless, go and preach 
the gospel, and, lo ! I am with yon." And when my heart has 
doubted, and my faith has been weak, and I have felt I had no 
right to claim the promise of the Lord, how those words have 
thrilled me: "I am with you, with you in all your weakness!" 

Here are the disciples who had forsaken their Master when 
he w T as arrested, who had shown no boldness, no firmness, no 
decision of character, who had been unwilling to risk them- 
selves ; these were the men Jesus said he would be with, and 
through all their lives. And, thank God, whatever may be 
our imperfections, the same promise is unto us ; for it is not 
for our sakes we preach the gospel ; it is for the world's sake, 
that the world maybe saved ; it is for Christ's sake, that Christ 
may be glorified. It is not solely our work to preach ; it is 
not alone our work to convert the world. No, for it is the 
office of Jesus to make the work effective ; it is for his glory, 
and he says : " Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much 
fruit." When I can see that it is not my doing nor my glory, 
but that all is for Jesus, and that God will be glorified in using 
the feeblest agency, I am encouraged. It is for his praise that 
he speaks through clay tenements, and makes the stammering 
tongue utter words of wisdom. " Lo ! I am with you, notwith- 
standing all your imperfection and all your past misdoings." 

But, again, this was a promise to be with the disciples ; and 
what were they with regard to preparation ? 



18i SERMONS. 

Often have we said: "Oh! if we were eloquent men; if 
we had been trained at the feet of a great orator ; if we had 
unrolled the volumes of wisdom ; if we had all the prepara- 
tion that it was possible to have on earth, it might then be 
Jesus would go with us." But with whom did he promise 
to be ? With the fishermen from the sea of Galilee ; with 
one taken from the receipt of custom ; with one from the 
ranks of physicians ; with men from the common walks of 
life. No matter, then, whence the man is taken, if God calls 
him to preach he has promised to be with him: with the 
young man and with the old man ; with the man brought up 
in the schools ; with the man taken from the farm, the fish- 
ing-net, or from official position — each has the right to claim 
the promise of Jesus : "Lo ! I am with you alway." 

Let us notice this form of expression, for I sometimes think 
we misapprehend it. Jesus does not say, " Lo ! I will be with 
you." It is not when we get into trouble that he will be with 
us, and when we sometimes pray very much for Jesus to be 
with us. He says, " I am with you ;" he never is away from 
us. When a man is sent to preach the gospel, Jesus never 
leaves him — "Lo ! I am with you alway." We may forsake 
our calling; we may forsake the side of Jesus ; we may, as I 
fear we often do, lose the consciousness of his presence. There 
may be a veil between him and us ; we may not see the bright- 
ness of his glory ; we may not hear the whispers of his voice ; 
but if he sends us on the mission he is with us. Am I ad- 
dressing his ministering servants this morning? are there men 
here to whom he has said : " Go, preach my gospel " ? If 
there be, Jesus is here ; if there be, Jesus is in this room — he 
is in our Conference. If he has sent you to preach the gos- 
pel, pray not that he may be with you, but open your heart 
and claim his presence, and ever bear the consciousness that 
he dwells with you and in you. 

It is not only the promise, "I am with you," but, as if to 
make it still more clear and powerful, " I am with you alway" 
— not absent one moment. " Friends may leave or forsake — I 
never ; a mother may forget her child — I never ; a companion 
may be alienated or turned aside — I will never leave you nor 



THE GREAT COMMISSION. 1S5 

forsake you." With yon always by night and by day ; always, 
in the pulpit and out of it ; always, in visiting the sick and 
in talking to the young; always, in darkness or in light, in 
safety or in danger, in health or in sickness ; with you when 
all is prosperous in the family ; and when the angel of death 
comes in and takes your dearest associates, and makes you feel 
that you stand alone, as some tree stricken and riven by the 
lightning — still, Jesus is with you — with you in bereavement ; 
with you in every hour of loneliness and darkness ; never 
leaving you. Oh ! what a promise is that ! " Lo! I am with 
you alway." 

Then, as though there might be misgivings, he adds, " even 
unto the end of the world." Thank God, the end of the 
world has not come yet ; we are in the bounds of the promise, 
and here the commission reaches unto us. Can we ask more 
than this, in going out on our mission to preach the unsearch- 
able riches of Christ? And now, could we enter into the 
spirit of this promise this morning, what would be the feel- 
ings with which we would approach our duty ? Oh ! could 
I realize it as I stand in this pulpit, and you as you sit in 
those seats, that Jesus is with us ! Is he with me in the pul- 
pit? Then may he take my memory and use it ; may he fire 
my imagination and employ it ; may he touch my tongue 
with his own almighty power; may these words be his, the 
uprising of thoughts be his, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit 
be his, and the illustrations be his ; for lie is with me alway, 
guiding me with his counsel. Said the Psalmist, " Thou shalt 
guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to 
glory." Here, I think, lies the power of the gospel, in the 
conviction that all power is given, and in the other conviction 
that Christ himself is present with his minister. 

Now, in our going out and attempting to preach we find 
many difficulties. There are men who are exceedingly prej- 
udiced, strong-willed, and stubborn, and it is difficult to 
reach them ; there are others so sunk in ignorance, and so 
wedded to error, that it seems almost impossible to make an 
entrance among them ; and yet I am sent to preach to them. 
Let me remember all power is given ; Jesus can change the 



186 SERMONS. 

hearts of that people; he can let great thoughts fall from 
heaven ; the power of motives can be felt, impulses can be 
communicated, and the congregation can be prepared for the 
minister, so that his words may be received with unction and 
with power. 

I am satisfied more of later years than I was in my earlier 
ministry that a congregation never assembles before a minis- 
ter of Christ but some hearts therein are sent prepared to 
receive a special message. If God sends the minister to 
the people, he sends the people to the minister. It is as easy 
for him to create a longing in some heart to know and feel 
the truth as to create a longing in my heart to declare 
the truth of God. I have as much confidence that there 
is in this congregation, this morning, some soul longing to 
hear the truth and to see Jesus as I have the conviction 
that I am here by the call of God ; and when this convic- 
tion comes upon me can I not hold up the cross? can I not 
exalt my Saviour? can I not stand in all my weakness even 
as the cherubim stand before the altar with their wings spread 
out? It is said of the cherubim, when the prophet was in the 
temple, that "with twain they covered their face and with 
twain they did fly." We stand in the sanctuary, and when 
we feel God is here we seem to cover our faces, but, as I drop 
my eyes, I raise up the cross with both hands, and cry as 
with my feeblest breath (and I trust it may be with my latest 
breath), 

n "Behold, behold the Lamb." 

Brethren, we may have the same vision ; we may always 
know the angels are there where we stand, and we may al- 
ways know that Jesus is there in the plenitude of his presence 
and power. And, if so, how should we preach ? Shall we 
preach mere essays? Shall we preach for the applause of 
men ? Shall we preach that we may win fame for some 
rounded period or high-sounding phrase? Not if we see 
Jesus ; not if he is listening to us ; not if our reward is to de- 
pend upon the manner in which we preach. But we will 
plead with men to be reconciled to God ; we will use all the 
arguments we can employ, and all the illustrations we can 



THE GREAT COMMISSION. 1$7 

gather ; we will come with words of burning love ; we should 
lay our arms, if we could, around our hearers, and say : " Come 
to the Saviour, who saved me ; come to the feet of Jesus, 
who waits to receive even you." 

Such, I think, are the thoughts growing out of this precious 
promise. Under the influence of this, the disciples of ancient 
days went and preached. And what was the effect of their 
preaching ? It is said they preached the gospel, the Lord 
everywhere working with them with signs and with wonders. 
It is said the gospel had free course and was glorified. Now, 
if the apostles preached thus, what w T as the secret of their 
success? I presume there are men in this conference as el- 
oquent as Peter ever was; there are ministers in this con- 
ference who know a great deal more than Peter ever knew ; 
there are men here who might have as much of the love of 
God within them as Peter ever had. Why, then, can they 
not preach as Paul, Barnabas, or Apollos did ? Is it because 
the energy of God is limited? That is the same yesterday, 
to-day, and forever. Is it because Jesus does not wish the 
gospel to be accompanied with as much power ? It is for his 
glory that it should have power. Why, then, has it not? Is 
it not in a great measure because we do not look for it? Do 
we not oftentimes enter the pulpit when we ourselves would 
be astounded if such a scene should follow as followed the 
preaching of the ancient apostles ? and yet Jesus is the 
same. 

You tell me the congregations are better educated than they 
were of old. That is true with regard to many in them ; but 
there are many going down to ruin. Scarcely a congregation 
ever assembles that some soul is not standing on the very brink 
of death, and on the very verge of hell. As I look over my 
congregation this morning I am assured there are those here 
who are standing on the very edge of ruin; fhere are back- 
sliders here who once were exalted almost to the third 
heaven, who are now cast down ; and yet Satan hath blind- 
ed their eyes. We ought to preach Jesus to these per- 
sons at this hour. There are young men here who have 
not given their hearts to God ; there are young women here 



188 SERMONS. 

in the prime of life, and in all the loveliness that graces 
the social and family circle, but they are without Jesus. 
The angels are looking down upon them in pity, saying: 
" Shall such sweetness go down to eternal ruin % Shall such 
loveliness be consigned to eternal darkness ?" Oh! the Spirit 
is brooding always over our congregations. Wherever we 
meet there are souls to whom the gospel should be faithfully 
preached, and we should expect present results. How sad I 
sometimes feel when I think that I may never give another 
message to some dying man ! I shall stand in the judgment- 
day with all these before me, and the question will be : " Were 
they faithfully and efficiently warned at your hands ?" I tell 
you this morning, young man, there is mercy for you in Jesus, 
but there is no mercy beyond Jesus. There is a heaven and 
a crown of glory for you, but it never will be yours unless 
you bow before the cross of Christ. How glad I w T ould be if 
I could take some of you to my Saviour! How glad I 
would be if you would come and bow at the foot of his 
cross ? 

The ancient disciples preached the gospel, and multitudes 
bowed before the cross of Christ. We trace the gospel down, 
and we find it has been able to overcome, thus far, all forms 
of error. Who were our fathers but heathen reached and 
conquered by the gospel? What is this civilized land of ours 
but a trophy of the cross of Christ ? And while the apostles 
might have had reason to doubt, when they looked around 
them in the world, whether all power was given unto Jesus, 
for they saw no signs of it, we of this day cannot doubt the 
declaration. There was rebellious Judea, killing the proph- 
ets and the saints; there was Rome persecuting; there was 
Greece scoffing ; there was the Pagan world all hostile. Me- 
thinks, when Peter looked over the world, it was a little diffi- 
cult for him to say, "All power in heaven and on earth is 
given to Christ, and he is reigning." But as we look over the 
world we see it fulfilled. Christ has been conquering the 
nations of the world, and its kingdoms are one by one being 
given to him — they are becoming Christian, and are casting 
their crowns before the feet of the Saviour. See where the 



THE GREAT COMMISSION. 189 

gospel is preached ! Look at all civilized Europe open ! 
Look at churches in every capital ! Look at Mohammedan 
Turkey crumbling to pieces ! Look at ancient India falling 
before the Cross ! Look at ancient China, as its power is fad- 
ing away ! Christ is taking the nations, one by one. The 
world is ripening for Christianity. As I see its rapid progress, 
especially in these last few years, and as I note the events, it 
seems to me I can almost hear the tread of the angels as they 
are walking over the earth, turning and changing empires as 
they go, walking along the battle-fields, breaking manacles, 
and setting free whole races and nations, and I hear them cry 
as they go : "All power is given unto Jesus in heaven and in 
earth." 

Look at Europe within the last few } T ears ! The battle-fields 
of Germany are opening doors for Christianity. I received 
a letter addressed to this conference last night from your 
brother Hurst in Germany. He writes thus: "Hanover was 
a closed door against us until Prussia had conquered it in the 
last war. Now all Norway is open, and all the dominions 
added to Prussia are laid open to our efforts." What is this? 
It is God working through battle-fields. The cannon and the 
bayonet are his ; the sword and the conflict are his ; the re- 
sult of strife is his ; for he makes the wrath of man to praise 
him, and the remainder of wrath he will restrain. 

It is not only thus in empire that the cause is extending; 
for I look around me, and I almost hear the voice of God in 
the very elements. This world is becoming a great brother- 
hood ; the nations are drawing near together. Oceans used 
to divide them, and men were afraid of the billows and of the 
w T inds. I often wondered, in my boyish daj-s, why Jesus 
spent so much time by the sea of Galilee; why it was said 
he walked on the waters — that he spoke to the winds and 
waves, and they were still ; but as I have grown older, and 
looked at the destiny of this earth — that it is all to be brought 
together ; that the oceans are to be the highways upon which 
millions will find their living — I see the beauty and signifi- 
cance of the walking of Jesus on the surface of the water, 
of his resting in the holds of the little ships, and, calm in the 



190 SERMONS. 

midst of the storm, lying down to sleep, and saying : " The sea 
is mine." Look at those iron bands which have united the 
Atlantic and the Mississippi, and will soon bind the Mississippi 
and the Pacific. Look at those telegraph wires, on which 
men whisper, and their words ought to be words of light and 
of love. What is all this \ It is Jesus conquering the world. 
The iron, the steam, and the lightning are his ; he made them 
all long before man found out their powers. God had placed 
them in the world. All power is his, and he has given them 
to us that the earth may be converted to God. God grant 
that we may w T ork in harmony with his laws, may feel his 
presence, and, in the day of eternity, may come forward with 
our trophies of rejoicing. 



XL 



€\t iirtnrq nf ^attjr. 



THE VICTORY OF FAITH. 

"And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." — 
1 John v. 4. 

Earth is a great "battle-field. Its bills and valleys, its moun- 
tains and sea-shores, have witnessed fearful conflicts. King- 
doms have been lost and won, and the face of nations and of 
empires has been changed. !Nor is this conflict confined to 
the shock of armies. There is a contest old as Eden, which 
still goes on — the conflict between right and wrong, between 
error and truth. In this conflict every human being has a 
part. The soul is at stake, a soul of infinite value, of duration 
beyond the duration of empires. The temptations to wrong 
are man} 7 ; they spring out of a corrupt nature. They are 
strengthened by evil habits, encouraged by wrong associations, 
fostered by a perverse public opinion. All the influences, 
whether visible or invisible, that conspire to prevent a man 
from reaching his high ideal of purity are comprehended in 
the expression "the world," which is said by the apostle to 
lie in the wicked one, to be so opposed to holiness that to 
be a friend of the world is to be an enemy of God. "We 
are assured, however, in Scripture that though the forces 
against us may be many, they that be for us are more than 
they that be against us. Men may have a victory, not a drawn 
battle, but a victory, clear, decisive, triumphant. Not only is 
this victory declared as possible, but the agency by which it 
is to be secured is distinctly stated : " This is the victory that 
overcometh the world, even our faith." 

At the mention of faith, however, some are ready to make 
objection. They tell us that man's elevation is to be secured 
by the exercise of his own powers ; that he is to seek it in 
self-development, self-culture, self-reliance; that prayer and 

13 



194 SERMONS. 

faith are unworthy of him, because they prompt him to took 
beyond himself to some other, and possibly to some unseen, 
power; and that true manhood requires him to rely simply 
on the faculties with which his Creator has endowed him. I 
shall not decry self- development or self-reliance, they are 
essential to strong character; no man can succeed without 
them ; but I do say that man never can rise to his proper po- 
sition by his own unaided effort. He must call in and rely 
upon powers about or above him to gain his true position. 
Were man to rely on his muscular strength alone, he never 
could surmount obstacles existing in nature ; but he reaches 
out, seizes mechanical appliances, harnesses the beast of bur- 
den, utilizes the cascade, vaporizes water, seizes the sunbeam, 
sends his message by electricity. He triumphs when he lays 
his hand upon and employs for his service the elements about 
him. 

I do not purpose to discuss faith in its dogmatic sense to- 
day. Taking it in its wider and generic application, I under- 
stand faith to be the supplement of sense ; or, to change the 
phrase, all knowledge which comes not to us through our 
senses we gain by faith in others. If we look at the realm of 
knowledge, how exceedingly small and limited is that part 
acquired through our own senses ; how wide is that we gain 
from other sources. Of this earth, we move over a small 
surface, we see a few mountains or valleys; but the wide- 
spread area from pole to pole is known to us solely by faith 
in others. Of history, how little do we know by personal 
contact ; we have lived a few years, seen a few men, witnessed 
some important events; but what are these in the whole sum 
of the world's past. We know the past and its great events, 
the present in its multitudinous complications, chiefly through 
faith in the testimony of others. The realm of immediate or 
personal knowledge is a narrow circle in which these bodies 
move ; the realm of knowledge derived through faith is as 
wide as the universe, as old as eternity. If, then, knowledge 
be power, how much more power do we gain through the 
agency of faith, and what elevation must it give to human 
character. As I survey nature I read this great law every- 



THE VICTORY OF FAITH. 195 

where, that the wider one's connections, the higher one rises 
in the scale of being ; or, conversely, the higher one rises the 
wider are one's connections. If, then, faith widens the con- 
nections, it elevates the man. 

To illustrate this law, let us look about us. A living sub- 
stance differs from inorganic matter chiefly in this, that it has 
power to appropriate to itself something beyond it. The 
flower which appears for a day above the face of the earth 
and blooms and dies has in itself a law of growth and decay. 
It sends out the delicate rootlets through which it drinks in 
moisture and the elements of soil; it spreads its petals and 
absorbs sunlight and dew ; it appropriates to itself something 
extraneous. The tall oak which stands upon the mountain, 
and wrestles with the storms of centuries, has the same law 
of growth, but it sends its roots into a wider area, it spreads 
its branches through a wider circumference, it absorbs more 
of earth's moisture, and drinks in more of the sunlight, and 
grows stronger and more enduring. If we pass from vegeta- 
ble to animal nature we note this distinction : the vegetable 
draws its sustenance from the point of its location and its 
limited neighborhood, and receives passively what comes in 
contact with itself; to the animal is given the power of motion, 
and it seeks beyond a fixed point for what may be nutritious. 
The polypi, though fastened to a rock, extend their branch- 
ing arms to seize what may pass near. But as animal life ad- 
vances in grade, the creature has the power of motion. The 
worm crawls from place to place ; the fish, the beast, the bird 
have power of more rapid movement; and with this widen- 
ing power they rise in the scale of being. How little do ani- 
mals know which have but the sense of touch and taste and 
smell ; how limited the circle in which they live ! When the 
more perfect senses are added, how the area widens ! The 
sense of hearing brings the animal into contact with objects 
miles away. The sense of sight extends still farther, and in 
a certain mode the animal touches the distant parts of the 
universe. Knowledge comes to it by hearing, from far-off 
mountains or from the billows of the sea ; by sight, from suns 
and stars millions of miles away. The animal rises as its con- 



196 SERMONS. 

nections widen. Man rises high above all other creatures as 
his connections grow wider ; still, his hearing is no more acute 
than that of the hound; but he can apply an instrument to 
his ear which makes even whispers resound with immense 
power. His sight is no more piercing than that of the eagle, 
but he grinds the glass, and he beholds a world of beings in 
the moss upon the rock, or in the drop of water. He grinds 
his glass again and the distant is brought near ; new planets, 
new stars, shine in the firmament; the nebulae are resolved; 
the fleecy light becomes an assemblage of worlds, and beyond 
the reach of the unassisted eye he reads lessons of wisdom 
and power. Then to man has been given the capacity of 
speech, the power to create written language, to note the re- 
sults of thought and observation, and hand them down to 
posterity. Through this wonderful capacity man converses 
not merely with his daily associates, but he steps into his 
library and communes with Plato and Socrates, listens to the 
thunders of Demosthenes, is touched by the strains of a He- 
siod or a Horace, draws near to the sacred mount and hears 
the voice of God, or walks into Eden as it was before sin had 
blighted our earth. Through revelation the invisible is made 
to appear, and he learns that there is the realm of the spirits 
of just men made perfect, that loved ones are above and 
about him, that angels are his servants, that though he dies 
he shall live again. Thus his connections extend from ever- 
lasting to everlasting. All ages, all nations, all events are 
brought into contact with him, and he rises infinitely above 
the animals that surround him. If we follow this train of 
thought, we may ask in what respect do angels differ from 
man ? Not in purity or in holiness merely, for in Paradise 
man was holy, and he shall be holy when redeemed through 
the sacrifice of Christ, and made an heir of heaven. But the 
angels are higher than man in this : they know more, they 
see more, they comprehend more, they can do more. Man is 
confined by this body to the earth; gravitation binds him, 
the elements encircle him. Angels are spirits, flames of fire ; 
they are higher than man, they have wider connections. If 
there be ranks of angels ; if there be archangel, or cherub, or 



THE VICTORY OF FAITH. 197 

seraph; if there be the bright and burning spirits about the 
throne, the gradation rests on their knowing or being able to 
do more than others. And if we rise still higher we come at 
last to one great, uncreated being, the ineffable Jehovah, who 
fills all space, who extends through all time ; with him every 
point is present; to him every moment of eternity is known. 
The nearer we approach liim the higher we rise, the wider 
are our connections. Now, if faith widens so vastly the asso- 
ciations of a human being, must it not be the cause of his 
elevation ; and may we not take a step further and say, there 
is no true human grandeur that is not gained through faith. 
Passing into practical life, illustrations of this fact are found 
everywhere; the distant, or, the unseen, steadies and strength- 
ens us against the rapid whirl of things around us. 

The old men of this country were often called to pass swol- 
len streams before bridges were built; mounted on the backs 
of strong horses they plunged fearlessly in. If they looked 
upon the rapid flow of the waters, their brains grew unsteady, 
they seemed to be carried against the current, and were in 
danger of falling and being drowned ; but if they raised their 
eyes and looked at some tree or hill-top beyond, or on some 
rock that jutted from the shore, they passed quietly and safe- 
ly over. It was the view of the distant that steadied them 
against the whirl of the present. The sailor boy is sent, in 
a storm, up the mast, and amidst the swinging cordage, to per- 
form some task; if he looks below upon the rolling deck or 
the furious waves, his head swims, he is dashed down and is 
lost. How shall he be safe? The old sailor cries to him, 
" Look aloft, look aloft ;" and if he can but see a star shining 
in the heavens, or the clouds, which are less unstable than the 
waters and the vessel, he grows steady and performs his work 
as calmly as the child upon its mother's nursery floor. It is 
the view of the distant that steadies against the whirl of the 
present. 

Is a man distinguished above his fellows for clearness of 
thought and comprehension of view, do we not say, he is a 
far-seeing man % The man who has a limited trade is en- 
gaged with those immediately about him, and the gossip and 



198 SERMONS. 

little rivalries and excitements of the town in which he lives 
powerfully affect him. The commercial trader sits at his 
desk, but he is arranging a cargo for China, though he never 
saw it, or is purchasing sugars from distant islands, or spices 
from the other side of the globe ; the little circle of trade im- 
mediately about him scarcely disturbs him at all. His plans 
are far-reaching ; lie is looking for the return of his profits, 
not to-morrow, or next month, but next year or in a succes- 
sion of years ; and his wealth has accumulated through in- 
vestments made with lands he never saw, and through the 
hands of men with whom he was never acquainted. It is 
faith that gives to him the knowledge and the confidence. 

Take the process of education. There is in the streets a 
little boy, an orphan possibly, or the child of ignorant and 
vicious parents. He is neglected and is growing up in vice ; 
how shall he be saved ? You say, educate him. What is 
education ? It is not teaching the number and forms of let- 
ters, or the marks upon a book ; it is not the teaching of the 
combinations of these letters as they represent sounds, and 
form words. Education reaches far beyond this. I see that 
boy as he sits in the corner of a hearth while the pine knots 
are blazing in the winter's fire ; associates are about him and 
the conversation is lively and interesting ; but he hears it not ; 
his eye is on the page, but his thoughts are not there. "Where 
is he? He is crossing the Granicus with Alexander; he is 
climbing the Alps with Napoleon ; he is driving into the 
depths of Russia with Charles XII. ; and he feels heroic emo- 
tions stirring within his bosom. An echo comes from his 
inner nature : " What man has done man may do ;" and un- 
consciously the boy outgrows the surroundings of the house 
and the plays of his associates, and there springs up in his 
heart the desire for fortune and fame. And thus education 
brings him into the companionship of the great and good and 
wise in distant lands and distant ages. It widens the circle 
of his thoughts, and he grows greater and stronger. 

The same lessons are taught us if we look at those who at- 
tain eminence in the various walks of life. It is sometimes 
said, the poet is born, not made. Yet no one has attained 



THE VICTORY OF FAITH. 199 

great eminence as a poet who has not familiarized himself 
with the history of the past, with the associations of the pres- 
ent; who has not drunk in the thoughts of other minds, and 
whose soul has not swelled with the knowledge of the great 
deeds performed by other men. His theme is the hero, or the 
sage, or the traveller. The young poet pores over the his- 
tory of the past, throwing over its actors and its deeds the 
colors of his imagination. I see him on a mountain-side as 
the morning beams are just beginning to tinge the heavens, 
and as the light chases away the shadows ; his eye notes every 
changing hue, traces the little streams which like silver lines 
mark the mountain - side, now in perfect stillness, and then 
leaping and laughing in their rapid descent. His ear is filled 
with the music of the bird as it mounts heavenward with its 
early song. All nature to him glows with beauty, and he 
stands entranced while there spring from his heart the 
thoughts that breathe, and he utters them in numbers which 
charm mankind and live through ages. The same lesson is 
seen in the life of the statesman. And when I use the word 
" statesman " I mean not the mere politician or the dema- 
gogue. The latter lives for the present, studies merely what 
is popular, how he may secure office for himself or gain votes, 
and is all things to all men. The statesman is quite another 
person ; he is studious and thoughtful. The young man 
reads history to know what men have done in the past ; 
studies forms of government, how great questions have been 
discussed, great problems have been solved. He is unknown 
to his fellow-men. He is living in the past; but there comes 
a time of trial ; the ship of state is among breakers ; there are 
quicksands, or there are rocks concealed, and the pilot knows 
not where to steer. Then the statesman comes to the rescue. 
He has made soundings. He knows where the sunken rocks 
are. He knows where the channel winds. He lays his hand 
on the helm and guides the ship of state until it reaches a 
safe harbor. lie had seen the tops of far-off thoughts which 
common men never saw. He had been studying the distant 
and the past. 

Two names are there well known among men which by 



200 ■ SERMONS. 

their contrast throw light upon the lesson — Washington and 
the elder Napoleon. Both were brave men ; both were true 
men ; both loved their country and dared to expose their 
lives for their country's cause. Napoleon was probably the 
equal at least of Washington in intellect, his superior in edu- 
cation. Both of them were successful in serving the state. 
But there came a time that tried their souls. Napoleon saw 
the thrones of Europe tottering ; their sceptres in the hands 
of the timid and weak. Ambition prompted him to seize 
those thrones and distribute them among his family and 
friends. He was for a time the autocrat of the world ; but 
there came a change, and he died a prisoner on St. Helena. 
Washington was victorious in war. An unpaid soldiery 
clamored against the government, ambitious friends offered 
him the dictator's sword, but his monitor, conscience, stood by 
his side and told him of the greatness of a free people. He 
himself had crossed the Alleghanies, had been a surveyor in 
the mountains, and had looked out far on the western vales. 
It is said that Henry Clay, crossing the summits of the Alle- 
ghany Mountains once, descended from the stage and stood 
with his cloak wrapped about him as if in the attitude of lis- 
tening ; some friends asked him, " Mr. Clay, for what are 
you listening ?" and he replied, " I am listening for the foot- 
steps of the coming millions." So Washington saw the com- 
ing millions and the coming glory of a free nation. He 
spurned the tempter and the temptation, put his sword in its 
scabbard, and went to be a peaceful farmer on the banks of 
the Potomac. Thus he was not only first in war, but first 
in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen. When 
Washington died the tears of a nation were shed, and his 
name rises brighter and brighter as the ages wear away. 
Wherever a struggling nation aspires for freedom the name 
of Washington is on the lips of the people. Napoleon was 
charmed with the near, Washington with the remote. See 
we not the same in science. A few years ago among the 
young men of Paris there was a thoughtful student. He 
was not found much in society. He was alone, pursuing in- 
vestigations, resolving formulas ; looking away out into the 



THE VICTORY OF FAITH. 201 

heavens he had seen traces of some planetary disturbance, 
and he desired to solve the mystery. His friends said to 
him, " Why prison yourself in your study ? come where 
beauty smiles and wit sparkles, come to the gay salons, find 
friends and joy ;" but he was deaf to their solicitations. Day 
after day, night after night, he is absorbed in his calculations. 
And I see him as he counts up the last column, as he resolves 
the last formula, and, throwing down his paper, he says," There 
is a new world and I have found it." He publishes in the 
papers his belief in the existence of a new planet, and asks 
the astronomers of Europe to turn their telescopes to a certain 
part of the heavens. Doubtfully that evening the telescope 
swept that region of the sky, and the stars were noted. The 
next evening and the next like observations were taken, and 
it was discovered that there was one little star that did seem 
to have moved. The new planet was found, and the name of 
Leverrier shall shine among the stars of heaven as long as 
those heavens endure. He had faith in the distant; in the 
immutability of the laws of science; and for that faith he 
rejected the pleasures of a moment. 

If, then, through faith such excellence is given in every de- 
partment of life, in every stage of society, why should it not 
be so in the realms of morals and religion ? Why should not 
faith join us to the good and the pure of past ages ? Why 
should we not listen to the precepts of virtue and religion as 
well as to the songs of the poet or the strains of the orator ? 
Man, in his inner nature, feels that the stains of sin are on 
him. He is captured oftentimes by passion ; he is led where 
he knows his feet should not go ; he has said to himself a 
thousand times he would be better, and yet sins again. What 
shall he do ? Where shall he go % Carried away by the force 
of passion, drawn by the influences of association, governed 
by the maxims of the evil world, he ever slides downward ; 
but he looks into the past, stands at the foot of the mountain 
and hears the law of God, draws near to Calvary and beholds 
one dying for him, stands where the prophet Isaiah stood, 
and amidst the darkness which shrouds the cross he is able 
to say, " The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and 



202 SERMONS. 

with his stripes we are healed." And there comes from Je- 
sus a peace that cheers and strengthens, and the stain of his 
sin and the dominion of his passions fade away. 

Man wants to be reconciled to God ; wants to know that 
the past is forgiven. Have you not seen at home a little girl 
who always welcomed, in the evening, the return of father. 
She met him laughingly at the door, or bounded to the gate 
to throw herself into his arms. One evening he comes home, 
and she is not at the gate or at the door; but as he enters he 
sees her in a corner of the room, absorbed and scarcely will- 
ing to speak to him. He learns the cause; she has disobeyed 
him, has done during the day what he has told her not to do, 
and she fears to meet him. Human nature is the same now 
as when Adam hid from the presence of God ; the conscious- 
ness of wrong makes us unwilling to meet those whom we 
have offended. But the father calls the little girl to him, 
takes her on his knee, shows her the wrong she has done, 
points out its evil, chides her until he sees she is sincerely 
penitent. Sorrow fills her heart; it throbs with anguish. 
She promises to do so no more, and with downcast eye and 
falling tear her little heart seems near breaking, when the 
father says, "My child, I forgive you." What a change ! she 
raises her face, throws her arms around his neck, imprints a 
kiss upon his cheek, and says, " my father." She is reconciled 
to her father ; and now she draws near to him. Just so with 
our hearts when God draws us to himself and says, " Your 
sins, which are many, are all forgiven you." The sense of 
guilt passes away, and the first impulse of the soul is to say 
" Abba, father." 

And this view of the distant restrains passion and Over- 
comes fear. The young man who has left his father's house 
on the farm, and has gone to the city to make his fortune, is 
often enticed to evil. The theatre charms, the house that 
leads to the gates of death allures ; but as he passes along the 
street and listens to the music, the memory of his sainted 
mother comes to him, and then that other thought of respon- 
sibility to God so fills his heart that he turns away from the 
enticements of sin. The thought of the distant delivers him 



THE VICTORY OF FAITH. 203 

from the power of passion. Is the soul in trouble? Does he 
despair of life? Does he give up all thought of friends on 
earth ? Is he ready for suicide ? It seems dark about him. 
But when the distant is brought to his view, the star of Beth- 
lehem breaks on his vision, the thought comes to him as to 
Hagar of old, " Thou God seest me." I have often felt that 
the ordinary manner of quoting this verse, " Thou God seest 
me," does not present it as Hagar said it. She knew that 
God saw Abraham and Sarah ; she knew the divine care and 
protection were given to them ; but when, in the wilderness 
and in danger of death, God's providence was manifested to 
her, it affected her heart, and she cried out, " Thou God seest 
me ;" me, the poor, the unworthy, the unregarded. It was 
the sense of divine compassion condescending so much as to 
look at her that soothed her heart. And when sickness comes, 
when strength declines, when death is near, when loved ones 
are carried awa} T , how faith comes to our aid ! We shall see 
our friends again. We can lay them in the grave ; we know 
they are safe with God. We ourselves can die with comfort 
and even with joy if we know that death is but a passport to 
blessedness, that this intellect, freed from all material chains, 
shall rise and shine. If I know that I shall be as an angel, 
and more ; if I shall behold all God has made ; if he shall 
own me for his son and exalt me to honor in his presence, I 
shall not fear to die, nor shall I dread the grave where Christ 
once lay. 

Thus it is faith in the distant inspires, cheers, strengthens. 
And yet there are those who tell us that the religion of Christ 
is fitted only for the poor, the aged, the weak ; that it may do 
for women ; it may do for ignorant men ; but for man — strong, 
vigorous, educated man — there is something grander and high- 
er. We are told that this religion is one of the things of the 
past, and that it is to fade away before the light of the pres- 
ent age. May I ask my sceptical friend what he will offer me 
in its place? What can he give me instead of my faith? I 
am willing to accord to him all he can desire, all he can claim. 
I give full credit to whatever unaided reason may prove, or 
scientific investigation may find. I delight in the refinements 



204 SERMONS. 

of literature, in the inventions of art ; but what will be the 
substitute for faith ? 

The genius of infidelity comes near me and offers me her 
hand. I cheerfully take it. She leads me through this earth, 
shows me its blooming flowers, and calls them by name, takes 
me through the forests and shows me the gigantic trees, roams 
with me through the animal kingdom and points out to me 
the exquisite adaptations of every part of nature, and I learn 
it all with joy from her lips ; passes with me through society, 
explains its customs, its history, teaches me its languages, and 
I learn them all. She digs into the earth and reveals to me 
the rocks in their order of superposition, what the fossils teach 
of old catastrophes, and of wonderful ages ; mounts with me 
into the heavens, opens to me the solar system so harmonious- 
ly and beautifully arranged ; carries me beyond that system to 
numberless other systems whose suns are but the fixed stars I 
see ; I go with her to the nebulas and look at the vast worlds 
that compose them ; away to the fleecy cloud where light just 
trembles on the verge of shade ; away to the suburbs of the 
universe, and when I have reached the last star and have sat 
me down, I still pant for more. I look up into the face of 
my guide and say, "is this all?" And she asks, "is not this 
enough?" "Are there not beauties of earth and beauties of 
heaven enough to satisfy the longing soul? Is there not wis- 
dom and power and skill so manifold, so conspicuous, every- 
where as to occupy the thought and fill the heart V Yet still, 
somehow, there is a void within. 

The genius of infidelity leaves me and the genius of Chris- 
tianity comes to my side. She too takes me by the hand, and 
I go with her through the same earth, past the same flowers, 
the same rocks and forests and hills ; takes me over the seats 
of the nations of the earth and teaches me the same languages ; 
takes me through the domain of the sciences and adds one 
more, the science of salvation ; teaches me the languages of 
earth, and adds one more, the language of heaven. She 
mounts with me to the skies; I drink in light from the same 
sun, pass to the same fixed stars, resolve the same nebulae, and 
away out again unto the last star where my former guide left 



THE VICTORY OF FAITH. 205 

me. And I gaze into the face of the genius of Christianity 
and ask, " Is this all ?" What a look of pity and love she casts 
upon me as she says : " Is this all \ This is but the portico ; 
it is but the threshold ; it is the entrance to the Father's 
house." And she puts the glass of faith in my hand, and I 
look through it, and away beyond the stars, away beyond the 
multiplied systems, 1 see the great centre, the throne of God, 
about which all things move — the great central point of the 
universe. And as I look there is One upon the throne ; he is 
my brother ; and I look again, and my name is written on his 
hands ; and I cry out with ecstacy : 

"Before the throne my surety stands, 
My name is written on his hands." 

It is my title to a place in heaven ; and there, when earth 
shall have passed and its events shall have closed, I shall have 
a home forever. 

"What can infidelity do for me that Christianity does not 
do? The same great scenes, the same great facts, the same 
great creation, all its parts : but Christianity whispers, "Your 
Father made them all, and made them for you." And a new 
light invests the world, and a new joy thrills through my 
heart. Oh, let others wrap themselves, if they may, in the 
chilly garb of doubt; let them, if they will, lose themselves 
in the mists of scepticism ; but give me the faith that recog- 
nizes a duty, that shows me a Father, that points me to an 
elder Brother who cries out: "I am the resurrection and 
the life," and then I shall have the assurance that " for me 
to live is Christ, and to die is gain." 



XII. 



€$t iinnj nf $nh's 3nm. 



THE GLOEY OF GOD'S HOUSE.* 

"And I will glorify the house of my glory." — Isaiah Ix. 7. 

There are few portions of the word of God which rise to 
such grandeur of inspiration as this passage of the prophecies 
of Isaiah. Whether they refer primarily to the captivity or 
to the glory of Judah, or whether they indicate the condition 
of other nations and the changes to be wrought out, scarcely 
has the prophet dwelt a moment on these lesser themes than 
he tunes his harp to sing of the triumphs of Christ. It seems 
as though every ray of light which in this scene of prophecy 
touched upon other themes glanced almost immediately away, 
and, joining with kindred rays, met, in the person and offices 
and victories of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this chapter 
from which our text is selected there are declarations ap- 
plicable to none but the Saviour. In the beginning of the 
succeeding chapter occur these words, " The Spirit of the 
Lord God is upon me," which our Saviour, quoting, declared 
were fulfilled in him as he stood in the synagogue ; and hence 
the words selected unquestionably refer to the power of 
Christianity on the earth ; and the declaration, " I will glorify 
the house of my glory," must refer either to the Christian 
Church taken as a whole, or to the branches of that Church, 
or to single edifices respecting which the promise may be 
given. The Church is sometimes represented as a build- 
ing, as a temple. We are God's building; the foundation is 
brought before us, the corner-stone being Jesus Christ ; and 
we see how, from age to age, the building rises in beauty, 
magnificence, and glory, until finally the light of eternity 



♦Preached at the dedication of the Arch Street Methodist Episcopal Church, 
Philadelphia, May 7th, 1870. 

14 



210 SERMONS. 

shall rest upon it, and God's great designs in it shall be ac- 
complished. And if we understand this passage as referring 
to the Church as a whole, then has it been fulfilled even in 
our own day in this, that God has granted it a position, 
a power, an influence, exercised by no other organization. 
Where are the schools of philosophy, the leaders of the ages 
past, the men of renown ? What system is it that to-day can 
compare with Christianity in its influence on the human 
heart ? Old systems have passed away ; living systems that 
have competed with it must fade ; the shadows of night are 
beginning to come over them while yet the dawn of the 
morning of Christianity is fresh and beautiful, and the voice 
still resounds in the words with which our chapter opens: 
"Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the 
Lord is risen upon thee." 

But to-day we would apply this text more specifically, and 
understand it as referring to the house of God, in which the 
people of God, from time to time, meet for worship. And I 
think, in reference to single churches, it may be said : " I will 
glorify the house of my glory." When men think of a church 
edifice they consider its location, size, conveniences, its style 
of architecture; and many other elements may possibly enter 
into their consideration. But churches have not only a human 
side, as designed to accommodate the masses who may come 
to hear, but they have a heavenly side also. God is interested 
in them — as though, surveying all earth, his eye was upon the 
edifices in which the people reside ; on the places of exchange ; 
on halls of learning ; on council-chambers of state ; buildings 
of magnificence, whether for convenience or amusement; but, 
glancing over them all, his eye rests simply on the churches, 
and he says : " These are the houses of my glory." 

A church may be said to be the house of God's glory, in 
the first place, because it is erected for the honor of his great 
name, and is, in this respect, partly monumental. As when 
some great event has occurred men have, from the earliest 
ages of the world, sought to mark it by something permanent 
— the erection of an altar, the raising of a column, the found- 
ing of an edifice — that posterity might thus be led to think 



THE GLORY OF GOD'S HOUSE. 211 

of the event, to bear it in mind, so houses erected for God's 
worship have a monumental character. So, too, when the 
great and good have fallen, how common is it to erect a 
monument ! Does one slip from the family circle, we seek to 
mark the spot where his ashes rest, and often by the morning 
light, and often by eventide, the wreath of flowers is carried, 
the tear is dropped that keeps those flowers green. But if, 
when the good have fallen, society marks the place, and rears 
pillars and monuments to their memory, much more should 
we so express the honor we would give to God. And man- 
kind have always sought to indicate the conviction which they 
feel in their hearts that they ought to worship by some ex- 
ternal manifestation. It may be said, worship is internal, 
spiritual ; that " God is a Spirit, and that they who worship 
him must worship him in spirit and in truth ;" and that hence 
there is no need of external manifestations of a devout 
spirit. But not such do I understand to be the plan of God. 
Though worship is spiritual and valueless without the deep 
yearnings of the heart going out to Him who is invisible, 
yet, from the beginning, he has required a visible manifesta- 
tion of the spirit of devotion. Even in the garden of Eden 
there was the tree to be untouched, to indicate God's sov- 
ereignty, and to stand as a sign that man had received the 
gift of the garden under pledge of his allegiance to God. 
And in the earlier ages following, we find the firstfruits were 
brought and offered on the altar as a token of gratitude, and 
that the lamb was slain and the sacrifice was offered. Look 
through Paganism. When it rose above the savage state it 
sought to spread its worship by building temples ; and the 
history of the olden times tells us 'that these temples were 
spacious and magnificent. No building to-day on the face of 
this earth, so far as I know, is larger than was the temple of 
Diana of the Ephesians. Yast sums were expended in their 
erection, and to-day, in India and China, large sums are spent 
in the erection of temples consecrated to the worship of 
those which are no gods. In Christian countries, the church, 
here plain, unpretending, and there with its spire pointing 
heavenward, indicates worship to Almighty God, and calls si- 



212 SERMONS. 

lently but eloquently to the passer-by to bow before the name 
of Christ. And the influence of these houses of worship, as 
showing forth the glory of God, can scarcely be overesti- 
mated. If the heavens above declare his glory because they 
exhibit his wisdom, his power, and, to some extent, his good- 
ness, these temples, rising all over the earth, ascribe honor to 
him in that man brings his offerings, and declares in the sight 
of his fellow-men that one of the greatest duties of life is to 
worship him. 

These houses are for God's glory, as I have said, whatever 
may be their character. There may be the log-cabin on the 
borders of civilization, and it may as much show forth God's 
glory as your large edifice in the centre of a great city. But 
if the church be monumental, its character must bear some re- 
lation to its position, and to the means and taste of those who 
expect to worship there. Upon the outskirts of civilization, 
where population is sparse and means are limited, the humble 
building is all that is requisite; but when men build houses 
for themselves, lined with cedar, when there are neatness and 
refinement everywhere, then the house of God should be equal 
to the grandest edifices of men ; then, as monumental of the 
faith and love and devotion of the people, the churches should 
be expressive of what the people can properly do. Look 
about you. Go into your cities and see your centres of trade, 
your merchants' exchanges; look at your library associations, 
see the structures erected by benevolent societies, and at the 
magnificent building, which is yet but half finished, by your 
side [referring to a magnificent temple building by the Ma- 
sons], and you see how men esteem institutions in which they 
feel an interest. And shall merely human societies show 
more affection and love and a more liberal outpouring of 
gifts than Christians for the church of God? Were they to 
do so, the house of God would not be, in its full significance, 
the house of God's gloiy. 

Look at the olden time when the children of Israel had 
come from Egypt, and were yet only a race of disenthralled 
slaves. When God commanded the tabernacle to be built 
out of their scanty resources, what were their offerings ? The 



THE GLORY OF GOD'S HOUSE. 213 

tents were small, the tabernacle was large ; and out of the 
little which they had brought from Egypt the gold and sil- 
ver and brass spent on that one tabernacle are estimated, by 
our best writers, as amounting to more than a million of dol- 
lars ! And afterwards, when the temple was erected in its 
fair proportions, consider the holy house in the centre of 
which God's immediate presence dwelt. See the mercy-seat 
covering the ark, within which was the law of God. How 
deep that border of gold ! How beautiful the cherubim that 
spread their wings over the ark of the Lord ! See those walls 
overlaid with gold. We can scarcely conceive of the mag- 
nificence of the temple which Solomon dedicated, and in, the 
midst of which God dwelt ; and the temple was patterned, to 
some extent, after the tabernacle, and the tabernacle was 
made according to the fashion which God showed Moses in 
the Mount, as a pattern of what was to be the house of his 
glory. 

But, again, churches are houses of God's glory, in that they 
are to be occupied solely for his worship. When man enters 
the sacred enclosure with uncovered head, he treads in solemn 
silence. The awe of the place rests upon his soul, and he 
seems to hear a voice which pronounces : " The Lord is in 
his holy temple : let all the earth keep silence before him." 
And then the services of the sanctuary show forth the praise 
of God. His word is read ; and what honor is put upon it ! 
Go into the schools. This teacher will instruct me in the 
writings of Plato, and that one will dwell upon the splendor 
of the style of Cicero, and another will let me sit at the feet 
of some eloquent sage of one of the ages past. While all 
these have their place, and while there may be found, ever 
ready to listen and sit at their feet, some of the sons of men, 
in this house of God no essays are read, no orations are de- 
livered as from the lips of mere men, but the word of Jeho- 
vah is heard. Out of the millions of books, one is brought 
to the sacred place — the Bible, the book of God ; »lus message 
sounds in the ear, being read from Sabbath to Sabbath ; and 
the masses of mankind listen to the teaching of God himself. 
It is thus his word is honored, his glory spread. And, then,. 



2M SERMONS. 

sacred song is heard in God's house; and from old men and 
matrons, and from young men and maidens, and from little 
children are heard the sweet notes of praise. All gather 
round the name of Jesus; and his mercy and his salvation 
are proclaimed tlms from age to age. And though we listen 
to the songs of the prophets and of the patriarchs, though 
the utterances of the past come down in harmony through 
the ages long since gone, the sweetest notes are those which 
David heard in prophecy when he bent his listening ear, and 
heard the perfection of praise in the music of the little chil- 
dren. " Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast 
ordained praise." And to-day the praise of God is sung 
from one end of the globe to the other, as the sun goes on 
rejoicing in his way. The listening angels bend to earth, 
and as that turning earth greets the rising sun, the voice of 
Christian song rolls on in one steady stream. As the tides 
encircling this earth of ours roll on ever, so does the voice of 
Christian song, uttering " Glory to God ;" and its home is in 
the Christian church. So, too, the words of prayer ; so, too, 
the instructions given : all these exercises show forth God's 
praise ; and well may the churches be called the houses of 
God's glory. 

But God, in looking upon them, has promised that he will 
put special glory upon them. " I will glorify the house of 
my glory." As in his house men offer praise to him, so lie 
promises to meet men there, and to put special honor on 
these places thus consecrated to his name. And, in the first 
and lowest sense, he puts an earthly glory on these houses. 
There is something beautiful in this prophecy. The sons 
are represented as coming from afar, and daughters from the 
ends of the earth, bringing their silver and gold with them. 
Forest- trees are described as laid under contribution — the 
cedar and box and the fir-tree together — to beautify the 
house of the Lord ; and then the fields send forth their flocks, 
and the surrounding coasts, as co-helpers, furnish the rams for 
the altar. All nature seems to become tributary to his house. 
And, if I understand this passage, it indicates that God does, 
in some special way, more than men can calculate upon in 



THE GLOKY OF GOD'S HOUSE. 215 

ordinary business arrangements, give aid in building houses for 
his name. They may begin in poverty and weakness. God 
seems to require his people to lay foundations in faith, and 
to work in humble trust, but he promises that he will bring- 
forth the top-stone with shouting, " Grace, grace unto it !" 
I think it may safely be said that while men, in building 
houses for themselves, should never go beyond their visible 
means ; while men, embarking in business, should never un- 
dertake to exceed the bounds of their resources, it is not so 
with enterprises connected with the house of God. Look 
over the history of the Christian Church, and from the be- 
ginning to this day men have begun such enterprises with 
slender resources. What would Luther and Calvin and Zwin- 
gle have done had they not drawn by faith on the revenues 
of Almighty God ? What would Wesley have accomplished 
had he waited until supplies were in his hand for building 
places of worship ? What would Miiller have done in found- 
ing his orphan-school if he had turned a deaf ear to the cry 
of the orphan until he had known where were the means for 
erecting commodious homes ? Not such his Christian faith 
or Christian work. God has said he will brins; the rams of 
Nebaioth, the trees of the forest ; that he will call his sons 
and his daughters from afar, and they shall bring with them 
their gifts, and that he will make the place of his feet glo- 
rious. 

Such are the promises of Almighty God, and to-day, as we 
look about us, the promise is fulfilled. I see to-day many of 
my brethren in the ministry and laity who have had large 
experience in building churches, and there is scarcely an in^ 
stance where they had resources sufficient for building when 
they laid the foundations ; scarcely an instance in which they 
knew where the money could be found when they attempt- 
ed the work. But the voice sounded in their ears, " Speak 
unto the people that they go forward," and they laid the 
foundations in faith, and, course after course, the structure 
rose until God crowned them with great success. And, if I 
mistake not, such has been the history of this church within 
whose walls we are assembled this afternoon. Little did the 



216 SERMONS. 

small band that began it a few years ago know where could 
be found the means to erect this house for God's glory, but 
they began in faith ; God opened the way before them, pros- 
pered their business, raised them up friends, and from the lit- 
tle company that met in a plain hall, see the crowd here this 
afternoon, flocking like doves to the windows ! 

Again, God crowns these enterprises with his blessing in 
another way, and that is, the community which builds the 
houses is never made the poorer thereby. The barrel of 
meal may have but little in it, but it never becomes empty ; 
and the cruse of oil may have but a few drops ; but the mys- 
tery is it never disappears until the work is done. And then, 
as to the aggregate of wealth, every community grows richer 
by the erection of churches. You may take any village : let the 
people contribute ever so many thousands for the building of 
a church, their property is worth many thousands more. It 
adds value to every acre of land — gives value to every foot 
of ground. Blot out the churches to-day from Philadelphia, 
and let it be understood that they are blotted out forever, 
and the price of property would fall immensely. Who 
would live where there are no churches ? And even as to 
individual cases, though there may be some who may not 
have so much wealth when they have made their offerings, 
yet, as a general rule, the church, the community, the people, 
who give the most for God's great purposes, do, by some 
mysterious means, actually grow in wealth. Look among 
the nations of the earth, and jow will see that the nations 
that are working for God are having poured into their laps 
the treasures of the world. 

But, again, God glorifies the church in that he makes it 
the source of great social refinement. "Who can estimate the 
refining influences of the church of the living God — its hu- 
manizing power, the love of order which goes forth from it, 
the self-government which it enables society to exercise? 
Men and women come to the house of God in decent dress, 
and they learn many of those arts which add to the beauty 
and refinement of societj'. Where there are no churches so- 
ciety is rude ; where Christian churches rise an air of refine- 



THE GLORY OF GOD'S HOUSE. 217 

ment diffuses itself everywhere. He who has visited pagan 
lands feels the power of the church. He who has gone 
through Mohammedan countries, when he steps on Christian 
soil again almost feels another atmosphere — heavenly, invigo- 
rating, pure — all about him. The church of the living God 
is a centre of social culture, and were there no other use for 
it than that, it would be of vast benefit to man. 

Again, God puts glory on the church in that he makes it 
a centre of instruction. It stands as the keystone of the arch 
of literature, of science, and of art. It is true the pulpit does 
not teach astronomy or geology; it does not speak of manu- 
facturing, or of painting, or of arts that develop society ; but 
it utters those truths that expand the heart of man ; it brings 
to the soul of man the great thoughts which make room for 
other thoughts. When the light of heaven peers through the 
darkness it makes an opening through which all other light 
may enter; and it is thus the church carries with it the 
school and the seminary and the university; it is thus the 
church is the centre of influence on society. It has ever been 
so, that about the religious system of the people, no matter 
what that system might be, there clustered whatever there 
was of learning, of refinement, or of excellence in society. 

But the chief glory of the Christian church is in that God 
promises to dwell there with men. " Where two or three are 
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of 
them." He promises to meet with man in the church, and 
that promise is fulfilled from age to age. Has it not seemed 
remarkable to you that whatever enterprise may arise among 
men, apart from the church, it seems to grow old, to decay, 
and die ? You have lectures, but men tire of them ; you have 
political parties that to-day have their speakers pervading the 
whole community, but, the struggle over, men care nothing 
for the banners they followed so earnestly but a few months 
before. Men meet in places of amusement, but sickness and 
sorrow come, and they go not there again ; the church of the 
living God has its crowds through all time. Eighteen hun- 
dred years have the portals been open, and never were they 
so crowded as to-day. The multitudes are coming from the 



218 SERMONS. 

north and from the south, from the east and from the west, 
and they find a home in the house of God. The highest in- 
tellect finds enjoyment and improvement there, and the poor, 
unlettered man, who has no knowledge of the sciences of 
earth, learns there the science of salvation. He may know 
very little of the many languages of earth, but he learns in 
God's house the language of redemption. He may be an or- 
phan boy, but his Father deigns to meet him there and 
take him by the hand. He may be a wanderer, homeless 
as to earth, but he sees the church and enters within, and 
God gives him a home. It brings together the extremes 
of society. The church of God throws open its doors and in- 
vites the sons of men ; the proclamation is made, as in the 
gates of the city : " To you, O men, I call, and my voice is to 
the sons of men." God meets with man especially in his 
church. And though the Spirit of God can find way to the 
heart of the sinner anywhere, at home or abroad, by the way- 
side or at his work, yet, as a question of fact, for every one 
who is brought to repentance without the church, there are 
probably a thousand who are brought to repentance by the 
services of the church. God there inclines man to thankful- 
ness ; the sinner is there awakened to a consciousness of his 
condition ; the law of God there sounds in his ears, And I 
might here remark that the law of God is more potent 
than all our armies, than all our police. Take away the 
churches, and what would city order be ? Could the masses 
be controlled ? Your penitentiaries would not be large enough 
to hold the convicts. 

It is by proclaiming God's law in the church that men's 
consciences are reached, and they are brought under the con- 
trol of an invisible power. An eye follows them by day and 
by night, at home and abroad. The Church, then, has this 
glory put upon it, of saving sinners by awakening them to a 
knowledge of their condition, and leading them to forsake 
vice, and to seek righteousness. And, in this process of moral 
reformation, men find in the church the knowledge of sins 
forgiven ; they are brought to the cross, and from that cross 
Hows upon their hearts a healing power. Men may ask me 



THE GLORY OF GOD'S HOUSE. 219 

how this is ; and some of my audience, hearing the word to- 
day, may possibly inquire, How is it that men in the church 
are brought to a consciousness that God, for Christ's sake, for- 
gives sins? I cannot answer in the full sense of demonstra- 
tion ; I cannot trace all the steps ; but I can go thus far: God, 
who has all agencies in his hands, has promised that where 
the people meet he will meet with them. Whenever a con- 
gregation assembles in his name, Christ is among them. And 
what a power does this give ! To-day I see many here whom 
I have taken by the hand, many whom I recognize as valued 
friends ; there are others whose acquaintance I have never 
formed, but all are men like myself ; yet I search in vain for 
him who was once the Man of sorrows and. acquainted with 
grief ; once the Babe of Bethlehem, and then the Saviour of 
sinners : once crowned with thorns, but now with glory, and 
sitting upon a throne. And yet he is here; he is here — his 
arms of love encircle us ; his voice of mercy whispers to us ; 
his great heart of affection is throbbing amidst us — Christ un- 
seen is here, and, Christ being here, he has power over us all, 
and he can turn the hearts of the people like the streams of 
the South. And he has put this glory on the house of God, 
that here he will always be ; that here will his honor dwell, 
and here men's hearts may open and find him ever near. 

Not only thus would I explain it, but, again, his own pres- 
ence being here, he gives efficiency to his word. The speaker 
does not understand the condition of his audience. There 
are trains of thought in the minds of those who listen of 
which he is ignorant, difficulties and perplexities he knows 
not how to meet ; but the great Head of the Church has prom- 
ised to assist his servants, to guide their thoughts, to hold 
their minds in his hand ; and sometimes a single expression 
dropped becomes like a sword piercing between the sinner 
and his sins. Oftentimes there is an arrow that flies from the 
sanctuary ; it may be shot at random, but the great Head of 
the Church guides it, and it reaches a heart which never had 
been pierced before. Sometimes a stranger comes and stands 
in the vestibule, or sits in the gallery ; he had hardly dared to 
enter ; the speaker had no knowledge of his presence ; but the 



220 SERMONS. 

great Eternal Spirit knew of him and his wants, and guided 
the heart of the speaker to just such utterances as should 
reach the stranger's condition. It is thus that truth becomes 
powerful ; and it is this that gives the minister confidence in 
his proclamation of the truth, knowing that it cannot be void. 
Though we know not what heart may be reached, we do feel 
that God holds us in his hands ; that, our arms of faith cast 
around the congregation, we can carry them to Christ. And 
then it may be even by way of suggestion. Though our trains 
of thought be not theirs, the thought awakened may become 
a power, which God's Spirit uses. And then, when Jesus 
is proclaimed in all his offices, when the minister holds up 
Christ before his congregation, presents him suffering in the 
garden, bleeding on Calvary, re-echoes his dying prayer, tells 
of his boundless love, the heart of the sinner is touched, and 
oftentimes he bows and feels the sprinkled blood. And, oh ! 
how many are in this congregation who have found Christ 
while in his sanctuary ! Were I to go, one by one, to the 
members of Christ's visible body present here from all com- 
munions, and ask them with regard to the time and place of 
their conversion, I have little doubt that I should find that an 
immense majority of them were brought to Christ in the house 
of God. 

Then, again, God puts special glory on his church, in that 
he makes it the place of edification and comfort. How many 
come heart-broken, sorrow-smitten, pressed down, bruised and 
bleeding, to the house of God! and his word is made life and 
joy to their souls. The old man comes, standing on the verge 
of the grave, and he hears of life and immortality ; and though 
he enter the church feeble and leaning on his staff, before the 
services close he is like a giant refreshed with new wine. It is 
here, in God's house, that the door of heaven sometimes seems 
to be open, and light shines down on the earth. When the 
wanderer Jacob was in lonely Bethel, with a stone for his pil- 
low, and wrapped in the slumbers of the night, lie saw visions 
of glory — the angels of God ascending and descending — and 
he awoke and said : " This is none other but the house of 
God, and this is the gate of heaven." The house of God is at 



THE GLORY OF GOD'S HOUSE. 221 

the very gate of heaven. The door of glory is near by. Un- 
seen angels are hovering and whispering and bending over 
ns, joining in our songs of praise — though they cannot join 
in the depths of praise to redeeming love. And those who 
went from among us may be gazing down — " the whole fam- 
ily," says the apostle, "in heaven and on earth." Part of 
them have crossed the flood ; part of them may be crossing 
now ; but they remain one family ; and as we join in songs 
below, so do they in the upper sanctuary. May they not see, 
though unseen by us? May they not join in our devotions? 
Is it a mere fancy when we sometimes sing : 

"Angels now are hovering round us, 
Unperceived amid the throng, 
Wondering at the love that crowned us, 

Glad to join the holy song : 
Hallelujah, love and praise to Christ belong"? 

"What visions here often cheer the heart of the comfortless 
and sorrowing ! And it is thus God puts special glory on his 
church — in giving these glimpses of heaven, and showing 
how eternity can recompense us for the sorrows of earth. 

The Christian church, again, has glory in being the place 
for the inspiration of noble undertakings. Who are they that 
plan your orphan asylums ? who that build homes for your 
aged and infirm? who are ready to go forward in every good 
work? who are seeking to spread happiness broadcast among 
the sons of men ? The inspiration goes out of the Christian 
church. It is at the cross that men have learned to love men. 
It is when the cross has been raised that God's spirit goes 
abroad among the people. Good men can scarcely stand be- 
fore the cross and see One dying for all without catching a 
little of the inspiration, and desiring to do something to lift 
up the race from degradation. Hence the church is the cen- 
tre from which great undertakings are set upon foot ; and 
society is thus bettered by its activities. 

There are many other ways in which God puts glory on 
his church that I have not time to enumerate to-day. And 
now, on this glad morning, I congratulate those who have 
helped in the building of this church for what they have done 



222 SERMONS. 

for God. This is a house of God's glory, set up for his 
praise. Let the services be ever for the honor of his name. 
Let this place be ever a house of prayer. May it ever be the 
very gate of heaven ! Christian people, when you come 
hither, come with reverence, with hearts of love, with feelings 
of awe ; come to worship, and not simply to hear. Too much 
to-day is it the custom of the world, and of the Christian 
world, to come to criticise, to admire or condemn the preach- 
er's sermon. Not for this is the house of God built ; it is 
a house of worship, a place of prayer and praise. Come 
then to the house of God with songs upon your lips ; come 
to take a part in every act of devotion ; come to offer up 
prayer as well as praise unto God. When you come here, 
think thus : that you are here, whoever may be in the pulpit, 
or whether the pulpit be unoccupied, to have an hour wholly 
with God; to commune with the invisible; to make your 
wants and wishes known ; that you are seeking, from the 
depths of your heart, to know more of Jesus. And never yet 
did an earnest inquirer enter the house of God in a proper 
spirit but Jesus was found there — found there often through 
the words of the speaker, but found there too in silent, earnest 
prayer before God. 

But, again, let the services of this church be not only, in 
their form and spirit, services of devotion, but let this con- 
gregation feel that the object for which they meet is not en- 
joyment, or even profit, but that they meet to do good to 
others. Let them come, bearing the burdens of others upon 
their hearts, and let them seek to bring with them such as 
they may be able to bring to Christ. Oh ! in this congrega- 
tion, let every man and woman become a living missionary. 
Bring the inquirer, the anxious, and even the sceptical, into 
the church, and, if God be with you, they may fall down and 
acknowledge that God is among you of a truth. 

Let this church be aggressive. Sad would I be if it should 
be merely a formal church. With all this outlay and this 
beauty, how sad if it were to be a dead church in which Christ 
will not dwell ! Better then had the money been cast into 
the depths of the sea ; better would it be had the edifice never 



THE GLORY OF GOD'S HOUSE. 223 

been erected than that it should be a refuge of deadness and 
formalism. But if it be a place where Christ dwells and his 
power is manifested, then you may use all other adjuncts, 
and you will bring this beauty and take it where it ought to 
be laid — at the foot of the cross — and offer up your praises 
with glad song, and crown Jesus Lord of all. 

My Christian friends, I have never thought that there 
ought to be less activity, piety, and aggressiveness in the 
best and finest of our Christian churches than in others. I 
want them to be patterns of energy, centres of aggressive 
power, deep-toned and earnest. I shall never be satisfied un- 
til this altar is crowded with penitents — until the cry from 
many lips shall be uttered : " What shall I do to be saved ?" 
Nor shall I be satisfied when the cry of the penitent is heard. 
I want to hear the shout of unburdened souls, and to see men 
arise here and tell that they have found Jesus, the Saviour of 
their souls. I do thank God that all over the country God's 
presence is felt in our best churches as well as in our cabins, 
and I thank God that his power is felt in our cabins as well 
as in our best churches. He dwells with the sons of men 
wherever they meet to praise him, and where they do their 
duty in bringing offerings to him. 

And now my special prayer is, that God's glory may be 
manifested here. I do rejoice to know that since this un- 
dertaking began, the families of those engaged in it have 
been visited from on high. I look now around me, and see 
parents sitting here who, when this enterprise began, had 
children out of Christ, and see now those children, their eyes 
beaming with love and their hearts overflowing with devo- 
tion to the Saviour. I see young men and. young women 
here who have consecrated their souls to God, and are giving 
their youth and energy to the cause of Christ. Young peo- 
ple, I welcome you. Be working Christians. Young men, 
be earnest ; young women, consecrate yourselves to God. 
And you, parents, recompensed in great part already, go on- 
ward. God be with yon ! and may this church grow in power, 
and may the gospel preached here be unto salvation, until 
multiplied thousands shall receive the word of life. 



XIII. 

CJre tymit nf tire UtintBtblt 






THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which 
are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things 
which are not seen are eternal." — 2 Cor. iv. 18. 



This world is a mingled scene of light and darkness, of 
sorrow and joy. There is much in it that is beautiful. God 
hath made the heavens above us, and the earth beneath and 
around us, to manifest his glory ; to charm us as well as to 
minister to our wants. There is much to gladden our hearts 
in beholding and studying the works of God ; and yet there 
are also occasions of sorrow in the world. There are sick- 
ness and death ; there are distresses and calamities. There are 
those who perish early in life, smitten down and taken from 
us ; and those who may wander and perish, not by the hand 
of death, but through vice. The anguish of the heart some- 
times is so deep that the earth is not a place of rejoicing, not 
a place to inspire grateful feeling; our hearts sink within us. 
Sometimes there is so much sadness that, were it not a sin to 
hasten away from the world, we might wish to depart. If 
there were any means by which the shadows of life could be 
turned into light, by which the sorrows of life could be turned 
into joys, by which we could make a revenue of pleasure and 
happiness out of the occasions of sorrow, what a glorious 
place this earth would be ! If, instead of tears, there should 
come up smiles; if, instead of sorrow, there should be ec- 
stasy, this life would be raised to the very suburbs of heaven, 
and we should delight to live, even forever. Philosophy has 
not been able to find out any method by which the sorrows 
of life can thus be transmuted ; but the religion of Jesus 
Christ teaches us not only to bear suffering with patience, 
but it assures us that our sorrow shall be turned into joy, 
that our light afflictions, which are but for a moment, shall 



228 SERMONS. 

work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of 
glory. And this is to be when, in the language of our text, 
" we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things 
which are not seen." 

The passage, then, presents us with the habit of mind which 
the Christian should cultivate, and in the cultivation of which 
there may be perpetual joy. 

The habit here spoken of is that of looking at the invisible 
— " not at the things which are seen, but at the things which 
are not seen." The phrase "to look," as employed in this 
passage, means to gaze intently, to fix the mind continually 
upon some specified object. Thus, I may pass through the 
garden of a friend. I may observe that there are walks taste- 
fully laid out ; that there is beautiful shrubbery on either hand ; 
that there are flowers which may delight ; and yet, as I am 
passing on, he asks me : " Did you notice that charming vari- 
ety of pink ? did you notice that passion-flower, or that lily 
from Southern lands ?" I had seen all the flowers as I passed, 
but I had not paused to look particularly at any one ; and I 
step back again, and before that flower I pause until I exam- 
ine its petals, see the form of its leaves, and dwell on all its 
charms, and it becomes imprinted on my heart — " a thing of 
beauty," which shall be "a joy forever." I saw it before; 
I have looked at it now. So, I may pass through a gallery 
of paintings. There are large numbers on the wall. There 
are portraits, there are landscapes, there are historical piet- 
ures. I observe the light and shadow and general outline as 
I pass rapidly along. But my friend says : " Did you notice 
that beautiful painting by Rubens, or Raphael, or Titian?" 
I had seen all, but I had not noticed that one. I stand before 
it. I look at its shadows and its brightnesses. I take in the 
whole character of it, until I am filled with the conception 
which the artist had. Then, when his conception fills my 
mind, I have looked at it, I have gazed upon it. 

Something of this same habit of mind is alluded to by the 
apostle. " We look not at the things which are seen " — not 
that we do not notice them as we pass along; not that the 
heavens seem not to smile, and the earth to be glad, but our 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 229 

attention is not so strongly fixed upon the visible as it is upon 
the invisible. The contrast here is a peculiar Oriental expres- 
sion — a kind of Hebraism. Tims it is said, " Jacob have I 
loved, and Esau have I hated" — an expression of contrast. 
Jacob was selected to be the father of the family from which 
the Saviour should spring. One of the two must be taken. 
Esau and his lineage were not to be the stock from which the 
Saviour should spring ; but Jacob was chosen. So it is said : 
"No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the 
one and love the other, or hold to the one and despise the 
other." It is possible for us, strictly speaking, to serve two 
masters; but there comes a time when the supreme homage 
must be given to one rather than to the other. There must 
be a moment of decision when the interests of the two con- 
flict. So this passage expresses merely this idea: that we 
should look more intently, should gaze more earnestly, more 
fixedly, on the unseen than on the seen. 

This does not mean that our minds are not to be enough 
fixed on the things seen to enable us to attend to the ordinary 
duties of life. The Christian has his employment in the 
world ; he follows some honest calling, and to it he gives due 
attention, for he is to be "diligent in business, fervent in spir- 
it, serving the Lord." It does not mean that he does not at- 
tend to learning. The Christian has a right to study to ascer- 
tain the properties of that nature around him which God has 
formed. He is the "son of God." The universe is his Fa- 
ther's handiwork. He ought to study the will of God as re- 
vealed in his word ; and there is no height of science but the 
Christian may reach it. He may be at home everywhere in 
the universe God has formed, because God has said, " All are 
yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." He is not 
to be indifferent to the charm which God has spread over nat- 
ure. The Christian has a right to love the beautiful. He 
may stand in the morning on the mountain-top, and gaze upon 
the mingled light and shadow. He may, as the shadows deep- 
en, look out and behold the firmament which God has spread 
above him, and, with the psalmist, " be wrapped in spirit, and 
adore." But, while all these things are proper for him, he 



230 SERMONS. 

soars above and beyond them all, and looks into the invisible. 
This claims his highest thought. But is it said this habit of 
mind is not reasonable, is not necessary ? I answer, God hath 
made us to cultivate this habit even for the attainment of hu- 
man excellence. He has spread lessons all about us leading 
us towards the invisible. 

But, again, if I look at the lessons God hath taught us in 
nature, I recognize the same law. I go out into the field, and 
I stand before the forest tree ; its bark may be rough, its trunk 
large; there may be little beauty; but I examine it, and, as 
the trunk ascends, the branches come out on every side; they 
divide and subdivide ; and at the extremities the clusters of 
leaves gather, and the flowers blush out towards the unseen. 
And the lesson seems to be that, just as we pass on towards 
the invisible, we find the lines of beauty, as if from the un- 
seen world there came a halo of glory to enrich and adorn 
all things here. I have been sometimes in a narrow valley 
near the time of sunset. Around me there was gloom; but, 
as I gazed up upon the mountain's top, I saw the radiance of 
the sunlight — not shining on me. I knew there was a sun 
shining unseen by me, which was gilding these summits with 
beauty ; so, as I wander over the face of nature, and as I 
gaze on hill-top and on tree, on shrub and on flower, I can see 
the radiance of the invisible world. God hath thrown a halo 
of beauty over all things visible, and they look out as towards 
the unseen. 

I notice the same facts in the works of man. When man 
begins to labor, his own strength can accomplish but little. 
He seizes the beast of burden, and subdues it to his will ; he 
lays his hand on the cataract, and makes it turn his machinery; 
he spreads out a sail, and catches the passing breeze. He has 
done much to subdue nature, and, as he rises in civilization, 
he seizes on more impalpable elements. He converts water 
into steam as it passes into vapor, and it becomes a powerful 
agent. He employs it in driving the steamship over the 
waves, and in carrying the train with speed over land. 
Rising still higher, he takes the sunbeam, and it draws his 
portrait; seizes the lightning-flash, and sends his messages 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 231 

from land to land, girding this whole earth, and giving him 
power, in a moment, to converse with all the world. The stud- 
ies of men lead in the same direction. We begin with the 
simple elements about us — the visible. We take hold, in phi- 
losophy and chemistry, of what might be termed the alphabet — 
the elements, the grosser forms. As we progress in our inqui- 
ries we go still higher, and light and heat and electricity and 
magnetism, in all their impalpable forms, pass before us in 
review; and to-day a large part of chemical and philosophic 
science is employed with impalpable and imponderable ele- 
ments, and science rises to its highest glory as it lays hold of 
the invisible. Now, if we find that man rises in civilization 
just as his thoughts are directed towards the invisible, shall it 
not be so that the Christian, in grappling with the highest 
possible thoughts, shall find himself passing over towards the 
unseen ? So far from this habit of mind being unreasonable, 
then, we find it to be in harmony with all the laws of God. 

But let us notice some of the results of this habit of mind. 
The first is, that it gives decision of character. Man needs 
something to steady his course while he is in the midst of the 
excitements of earth ; and, that he may be steadied, he needs 
a look into the unseen. When men began navigation they 
sailed along the coasts of the mainland, and kept in sight of 
the mountain-tops or hills — some marked objects ; but navi- 
gation never could attain a wide range until there was some- 
thing to guide the course of the vessel in darkness as well as 
light, far out upon the ocean as well as near the shore. Man 
found the compass, discovered that the needle was touched by 
some strange power of magnetism, that it pointed at all times 
towards the north ; and then, with the help of this, the sailor 
could keep steadily on his way, without regard to things near 
him or around him. 

So is it in life. The young man is liable to waver, to be 
led astray ; but if he can look out into the unseen ; if his 
course can be directed, not only for this year or for the next 
year, but for his whole career ; if he can see the distant, his 
mind will be raised above the excitements of the present ; 
and just as, in swimming some swollen river, the eye fixed on 



232 SERMONS. 

the opposite bank gives steadiness ; just as, in mounting the 
cordage of the ship, the eye fixed forward enables one to go on 
securely ; so the steady gaze upon the unseen enables one to 
hold on his course amid the attractions and the allurements 
of life. There may be in philosophy much to give decision 
of purpose ; there may be fixed principles that can guide us ; 
but religion alone opens up the distant to our view. I take 
the Word of God, and I gaze through it into the unseen ; I 
am carried into the ages past, walk amid the patriarchs and 
prophets, go back century after century, until I approach the 
creation of the world; back still further, until I am brought 
to the hour when " the morning stars sang together, and the 
sons of God shouted for joy ;" and still further, creation opens 
up as I stand before the eternal Jehovah, who alone exists in 
this vast universe. He has spoken the word which calls cre- 
ation into being ; and I am connected by this with the eternal 
past. Then, by the force of thought, I seem to be projected 
towards the eternal to come, and I pass through the ages — 
the revolutions of nations, the fall of empires, the wasting 
away of generations; and I look on and on and on, into the 
future opening up before me, and I see that, long as the throne 
of God shall endure, I shall live. 

"When such a thought takes possession of me, how I am 
lifted above the anxieties of this life ! Am I to live forever 
— what need I care for the passing hours ? I may be rich or 
poor ; there may be interests here I may subserve by wealth ; 
I may be temporarily suffering from poverty — but what is all 
compared with the great future before me ? If I have but 
little treasure on earth, I can have treasure laid up in heaven. 
There are rich men on earth who will not be rich in eternity ; 
and there are poor men on earth who will be rich in the day 
of the Lord Jesus ; and if the mind can be thrown forward 
thus, how this view of the future will compensate for the pri- 
vations of the present ! And when man can look thus intent- 
ly, he will learn to estimate at their true value the things of 
earth. But not only will decision of purpose be given ; there 
will be a source of unfailing joy found in the contemplation 
of the invisible. 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 233 

If we can know that we shall be the sons of God and heirs 
of a glorious inheritance, with such assurance we can look out 
into the invisible with calmness. There is none of us but has 
a feeling that the invisible is near. It gathers about us ; its 
very shadows seem sometimes to fall upon us. We know not 
by nature what that invisible is, but that there is an invisible 
the very instincts of our hearts tell us. Who has not trem- 
bled at the thought of it 1 ? Who has not been anxious to lift 
the veil which shrouds it from our view ? Who has not fol- 
lowed in mind the friends who have just passed over the boun- 
dary-line? Who has not trembled by the side of the death- 
bed and the grave when the eternal seemed to come so near ? 
And why such feeling? We have a relation to the invisible. 
The heathen live in dread of it. They have peopled the air 
with genii and fairies and ghosts and demons, and they fear 
the invisible because darkness hangs upon it. 

But to the Christian the invisible flames with brightness — 
Christ hath brought life and immortality to light by the gos- 
pel — and we know that while there is the invisible, there are 
beauty and joy beyond. The very grave itself is a passage 
into the beautiful and the glorious. We have laid our friends 
in the grave, but they are about us. The little children who 
sat upon our knee, into whose eyes we looked with love, whose 
little hands clasped our neck, on whose cheeks we imprinted 
the kiss — we can almost feel the throbbing of their hearts to- 
day. They have passed from us, but where are they ? Just 
beyond the line of the invisible. And the fathers and moth- 
ers who educated us, directed and comforted us, where are 
they but just beyond the line of the invisible? The asso- 
ciates w T ho walked along life's pathwa} T , with whom we took 
sweet counsel, and who dropped from our side, where are they 
but just beyond us? not far away ; it may be very near us, in 
the heaven of light and of love. The invisible is not dark ; it is 
glorious. Sometimes the veil becomes so thin it seems to me 
that I can almost see the bright forms through it, and my 
bending ear can almost hear the voices of those who are sing- 
ing their melodious strains before the throne of God. Oh ! 
there is music all about us, though the ear of man hear it not ; 



23tt SERMONS. 

there are glorious forms all about us, though in the busy scenes 
of life we recognize them not. The veil of the future will 
soon be lifted, and the invisible will appear. And when you 
and I shall just step beyond the veil, oh, how glorious ! We 
shall look back to life, and wonder why it was that it did not 
flame with light even while we were treading the pathway 
below. 

Oh, that look into eternity! Our friends are there, our 
loved ones are there, and they are not far from us. Whether 
the thought is connected with the drooping of winter, wheth- 
er my mind has been inclined to look more into the grave of 
late, and beyond it, I cannot jnst say ; but, as I grow older, it 
seems to me that the invisible has greater and greater attrac- 
tions for me. Never did I ponder so much on those beautiful 
passages where the life of the future is brought to light as I 
have in recent times. I have seen such a fulness in the passage 
where Jesus is represented as bringing life and immortality to 
light in the gospel that my soul has sometimes seemed to be 
almost filled; and, as friend after friend has passed over, I 
have held sweeter and sweeter communion with the spirit- 
world. Will you accompany me this morning on a slight excur- 
sion, as I shall attempt to show you how Jesus raised the veil ? 

I know there are some here who ask, Do the friends of our 
love think of us? do the fathers and mothers who cherished 
us come back ever to visit us? do the dear ones that dropped 
from our circle know us still? shall we know them in the 
other world? have they any care for us this morning? do they 
love us as they used to love us when they walked by our side 
upon earth? I think, to answer this very question, Jesus lift- 
ed the veil, and I behold him, as he steps into a house of death, 
where the damsel was lying. They said, " She is dead." He 
put out the friends ; the father and mother remained, and his 
disciples, with him ; and he took the damsel by the hand and 
he raised her up. She had been dead. And now let me ask 
this question, Do you suppose that damsel, when she came to 
life again, recognized her mother? did she know her father? 
She had died ; and if death destroys memory, her memory 
was gone ; if death destroys associations, her associations of 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 235 

thought were gone. And had she come back again without 
memory, without the strength of association, and without at- 
tachment to her friends, what would life have been ? But, 
methinks, when she opened her eyes she threw her arms 
around her mother's neck. When her father came to drop 
a tear upon his daughter's cheek, returned as she was to life, 
did she clasp that father's hand? did she know him? did she 
know her friends? Life had been dull and dreary without 
such knowledge. I can only think of her as coming back 
just as she was before — with the same memory, the same af- 
fections, the same attachment to her friends, that she had just 
before she died. What was that but to show us that death 
makes no change ? But, it may be said, she was dead so short 
a time as to make no difference in her. 

Jesus meets the bier whereon the young man is being car- 
ried to the grave — the only son of a widow. He had been 
dead, possibly, several days; they were taking him to the 
grave. Jesus stops the bier, and he takes the young man by 
the hand and commands him to arise. I see him as he is re- 
stored to his mother. Does he know his mother, do you think? 
Oh ! as he is raised from the bier, and the tear falls from her 
eyes, and she throws her arms around him, saying, "My son, 
my son!" do you doubt the son knew his mother? It had 
been almost cruel in the Saviour to bring him back, if he had 
looked upon her as a stranger, if he had forgotten all of earth, 
if he had no interest and no care in this world. It had been 
sad to the mother to have the son come back thus. But he 
came back to be her son, to call her mother, to take her by 
the hand. Oh ! how she must have leaned afterwards on the 
strong arm of her son ! Now he felt that he w T as raised up 
from the grave, if possible, to love her better than ever. 

But do you say he had not yet been laid in the grave, and 
possibly the grave makes a difference in the affections? Jesus 
would not come to Bethany while Lazarus was sick, nor when 
first he died, nor when he was being carried to the tomb, that 
he might raise him on the way thither. He suffered him to 
die and to be carried to the grave; he suffered him to be laid 
in the tomb four days, and the sisters thought that decay had 



236 SERMONS. 

already commenced. Jesus said, " For your sakes, I was not 
there." For he intended to let us look a little further into 
the spirit- world. Jesus calls him back again ; and, when he 
rose, do you think he knew Mary and Martha? Did he rec- 
ognize these sisters when the Saviour said, " Loose him and 
let him go ?' 5 As he came up from the grave, think you he 
remembered the hills of Bethany ? Did he know the way to 
his own home, and the friends who came to meet him there? 
We cannot think of him otherwise than as recognizing them 
all. He was the same Lazarus, though four days he had lain 
in the tomb. 

Then, as if to show us that no time could interrupt memory 
or feeling, or change the great current of our thoughts, on the 
day of Transfiguration, when Jesus takes up Peter, James, 
and John to the summit of the mount, he calls to the spirit- 
world, and Moses and Elias come. They had spent ages in 
eternity, and yet, at Jesus's bidding, they come back again. 
They stand and talk with him there. The same feelings 
which they had when they looked to a Saviour to come they 
have now in the presence of the Saviour who had come. 
They knew what Jerusalem was; their affections clustered 
around it ; they talked of his decease that he should accom- 
plish at Jerusalem — with the same feelings and thoughts they 
had while here on earth. How that vision has often charmed 
me! 

Oh ! they do care about earth, they do come back to earth ! 
The glorified saints love our earth still ; our kindred in heaven 
love us still. The mother who counselled me, and who bore 
me when an infant, who talked to me in my riper years, 
and whom I laid in the grave a few months ago, she is my 
mother still. Beyond the dark curtain which hides immortal- 
ity from view she is the same still. She loves me still. If I 
but give my heart to God, and discharge my duty, she waits 
to welcome me in the spirit-world. The song of joy is going 
up just on the other side ; and methinks white hands are beck- 
oning to some of us. A little longer bear earth's jarrings and 
toils, and then go up higher. The invisible is flaming in light ; 
and as I look out it becomes a joy to my heart. 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 237 

What effect have the thoughts of the invisible to overcome 
temptation 1 The young man leaves his country home and 
comes to the city. He is allured by music and gay society, 
and the saloon and the doors and chambers that go down to 
death ; how shall he be saved ? Let thoughts of the invisible 
come to his heart as he is listening to the bewitching music, and 
gay scenes are enchaining him. Turning from scenes of temp- 
tation, he goes to the house of prayer to seek the God of his 
father, and to dedicate himself to him. Does he think of do- 
ing wrong, the thought of the Invisible, that eye of God, is 
upon him. And if he is tempted to dishonesty, he knows that 
if he defrauds he must pay back every cent, or heaven's doors 
will be shut against him forever ; he looks out upon the invisi- 
ble. He may be able to rob the widow ; he may be able to 
ruin that relative ; he may be able to keep money from him 
to whom it is due : the laws of man may not reach him, but 
the law of God will reach him — eternity holds its hand upon 
him. There are eyes in the invisible world that see all he is 
doing, all he is thinking, all he is planning; and at the point, 
possibly, of a contemplated act of wickedness, he says : 
" How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God ?" 
Thoughts of the invisible overcome the power of temptation, 
and he feels a strength that has enabled him to resist the al- 
lurements of sin. 

Again, it is this view of the invisible and eternal that ena- 
bles us to bear the afflictions of life with calmness. You and 
I are going down to the grave and our hearts sink within us ; 
but if we can look up beyond the seen, how the joys of the 
unseen can sustain us! See the poor widow whose children 
are crying for bread. The winter's storm rages about her ; 
the fuel is exhausted in her fire. Whither shall she turn ? 
The charity of the world seems cold ; but if she can look up 
and believe that a house is prepared for her, that all are hers, 
that she is a child of God and an heir of glory, she can wipe 
away her tears, and point her children to the spirit-land; and 
she can be happy even in the midst of suffering, because she 
knows that earth has no sorrows that heaven cannot cure. 
And if we go down to the very edge of death — our own flesh 



238 SERMONS. 

failing and our hearts drooping — the invisible alone can com- 
pensate us. I can lay my friends in the tomb with resigna- 
tion and calmness when I know that I shall meet them again, 
and I myself can go down without fear until my feet touch 
the cold waters, if I can know that I shall come forth again 
all glorious. We shall soon behold the King in his glory, and 
we shall see the land that is very far off. And, oh ! this city 
of God shines out in beauty, with its walls of jasper, its gates 
of pearl, its streets of gold, its fountains of crystal, and its in- 
habitants all arrayed in white, and God himself the light of it ! 
How our eyes shall be charmed, and we shall know there is 
no more sorrow, no more darkness, no more sadness ! It is 
the thought of this eternity alone that can sustain our hearts, 
and make our life joyful to us here. 



XIV. 

iinnjittg h t\)t €xm. 



GLOKYING IN THE CKOSS. 

"But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." — 
Gal. vi. 14. 

After the Church had been established in Galatia, and the 
gospel had been preached, which was the power of God unto 
salvation through the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, there 
arose some among the Christians who, in order to be less ex- 
posed to reproach, proposed to introduce more fully the cere- 
monies of Judaism ; and hence they advised the Christian 
converts to be circumcised, and to keep the Jewish law. The 
apostle, in writing to the Galatians, remonstrated with them, 
and asked them if they had begun in the Spirit, why, then, 
they should turn to the flesh ; told them that they were to be 
justified through faith in Christ ; that those who urged them to 
be circumcised desired to make a fair show that the reproach 
of Christ might cease ; " But," said he, " God forbid that I 
should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the 
world." 

The language of the text may be slightly modified to bring 
out what I conceive to be its full meaning : " God forbid that 
I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, not- 
withstanding by it the world is crucified unto me and I unto 
the world." That is, notwithstanding the cross is a reproach, 
notwithstanding by it the world is crucified to me and I to 
the world, yet I glory in the cross as above and beyond all 
things else. 

By the expression, " the world is crucified unto me," I un- 
derstand that all the fame and honor of the world were 
counted by the apostle as something entirely foreign to him, 
something for which he had no taste and no desire. The 

16 



242 SERMONS. 

cross stood between him and the world. If lie espoused the 
cross it became impossible for him to gain worldly applause. 
Before he accepted Christianity he had been in the Jewish 
Sanhedrim. Having sat at the feet of Gamaliel, he was 
among the well-known of the land, was regarded as a man of 
power; there opened before him prospects of honor on every 
hand ; but when he espoused the cause of Christ, that mo- 
ment to him was closed every avenue to wealth and fame. 
The world was crucified to him, placed beyond his reach ; 
and through the cross he even had no desire for this gain of 
earth ; he looked upon it as something as much removed from 
him as though it were a dead body. So, on the other hand, 
by it he is " crucified to the w T orld," that is, the cross sepa- 
rates him from the kindly regards of men. Just as a body 
crucified was an object of shame, so the apostle became in the 
eyes of the world an outcast. Men thrust him out from 
their friendship. He was removed far from them, so that 
the cross on either hand became a separating power between 
him and the world. It destroyed his taste, his relish, his 
thirst, for the world's prizes, and it so operated upon the 
minds of others as to make them averse to him. The early 
Christian could have no possessions ; he had no safe habi- 
tation ; his name was cast out as evil ; he was likely to be 
seized and imprisoned, tortured and put to death ; the world 
was emphatically crucified to him ; he was emphatically cru- 
cified to the world. 

Now, that which should accomplish this for a man — which 
should cut him off from all earthly associations, from fame, 
from ease, from wealth, and make him a reproach and a by- 
word — should be rather an object of aversion than otherwise, 
it would seem ; he should be sorrowful because of it ; and yet 
the apostle, rising to the grandeur of the conception of this 
sacrifice, cries out, " Notwithstanding all this, though the 
world is crucified to me and I to the world, yet God forbid 
that I should glory save in the cross !" 

Now the object of human glorying is something which 
gives delight, enjoyment, power. The young man glories in 
the vigor of his frame, in the buoyancy of youth. The 



GLORYING IN THE CROSS. 243 

wealthy man glories in the power of adding farm to farm, 
and house to house, in accumulating funds and stocks, and 
making investments ; he counts over his title-deeds and his 
certificates, and he glories in them. He has accumulated 
what will make him independent. The famous man glories 
an his position — the offices which he has filled, the influence 
which he has gained over society. The statesman glories in 
that he has been able to mark out great outlines for the de- 
velopment of the resources of his country, and place it in 
the highest rank among nations. It is cause for glorying, for 
instance, to Bismarck that he has been able to unite the Ger- 
man States in one empire, and place Prussia, and with it Ger- 
many, at the head of the nations of Continental Europe. The 
soldier glories in the battles he has fought, in the victories he 
has won. Men place laurels on his brow, and he looks to these 
as the record of the grandeur of his life. The man of fashion, 
of dissipation, of amusement, may glory in scenes of sensuous 
joy. But you may mark that all this glorying is in some- 
thing that gives to us comfort, ease, fame, power, wealth, joy 
of high or low degree. But the cross of Christ has cut off 
the apostle from these. How strange, then, that he should 
glory in the cross ! 

Then there is another peculiarity about this. If the apos- 
tle were a Christian simply, and he desired in the eyes of men 
to exhibit the grandeur of Christianity, there was much to 
glory in besides the cross. Take the person of Christ ; dwell 
on his essential divinity. Of him the beloved apostle John 
says, when opening the gospel : " In the beginning was the 
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." 
" And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us : and 
we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the 
Father, full of grace and truth." What a wonderful theme 
for glorying here ! To preach Christ! Oh, to preach him as 
the incarnate God, the Frainer of all worlds ! What a field 
this from which fancy may take its loftiest flights ! To 
point to the vast universe, the worlds which he cast as from 
his hands into the abyss of space, and governed their motions, 
and gave them all their elements and resources, to dwell on 



24:4 SERMONS. . 

the grandeur and the limitless wisdom and beauty developed 
under this creative power — would be a theme in which the 
apostle might well have exulted ; and, exhibiting thus the 
character of our Lord Jesus Christ, he would have held him 
up especially as an object of attraction. 

Then, again, he might have gloried in the wisdom of his 
instructions. He spake as never man spake. The multitudes 
gathered round him, listening to the words that dropped from 
his lips, and he told them of heavenly things more clearly 
than man ever spoke of them before. The crowds stood en- 
raptured with his teaching, as they drew near to him on the 
mountain-side, or followed him through valleys, or left their 
homes and went out into the wilderness, until they were wea- 
ried and hungry, but still attracted by the wonderfully rich 
thought contained in the lessons of Christ. Now, as men 
lionor the great philosophers of earth, as they dwell on the 
names of Plato and Socrates, why not thus dwell on the teach- 
ing of Christ, and why not glory in the wisdom of his words, 
and exalt him as above the philosophers of earth for the grasp 
of his thought, for the strange power of bringing the invisi- 
ble to the light ! Here were themes on which the apostle 
might dwell and the world would listen. 

Then, again, he might have turned to the actions of Christ ; 
and there was that wherein he might glory in the power of 
God manifested in the flesh. He could depict the scenes of the 
life of Christ; point to his birth, to the star from heaven 
which became the signal to show the wise men the way to 
the cradle, in Bethlehem ; to the wise men coming and bring- 
ing their offerings of gold and frankincense and myrrh ; he 
might show how God watched over the infant child and 
saved him from the wrath of Herod ; then describe how, 
when a boy, in the temple, he confounded the doctors, asking 
and answering questions ; and then he might point to him as 
showing the highest manifestation of benevolence in going 
about doing good, bringing up the blind and the deaf and the 
lame and the sick, and the outcast, and the very dead, and ex- 
hibiting them as the subjects of his own miraculous power ; 
and how as a God he created, and how as a Saviour he blessed. 



GLORYING IN THE CROSS. 245 

and how his heart flowed out with sympathy to every human 
being — boundless in his benevolence, and lifting up earth to 
the very verge of heaven ! What a theme to dwell on — the 
wonderful works of our Lord Jesus Christ !---such works as 
never were performed by men. 

Now if we were to glory to-day in the person of Christ in 
our contest with unbelief, we would take these points, and we 
would show the grandeur, the power, the overwhelming su- 
periority of Christianity; of the person, the nature, the char- 
acter of Christ. And yet, turning from these, the apostle 
cries out," God forbid that I should glory save in the cross 
of our Lord Jesus Christ." That cross was the sign of his 
inferiority. He died — died as a man. He died as a malefac- 
tor. It was the wicked who were to be crucified ; and to 
dwell on the fact of Christ's crucifixion was apparently to ac- 
knowledge that he was an evil-doer, one of the lowest of men ; 
that he deserved to be an outcast, and to be punished for his 
sins. And yet, notwithstanding this was the light in which 
the cross would be regarded everywhere, Paul raised his voice, 
speaking of Christ crucified. When he went among the pol- 
ished Corinthians we should expect from him the study of 
beauty and grace, but his language was, " I determined to 
know nothing among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." 
He would speak of Christ, the power of God, and the wis- 
dom of God ; but all as exhibited in the cross. And every- 
where, and under all circumstances, the cross was made the 
centre around which clustered all the themes on which he 
dwelt. If he spoke of the forgiveness of sins, it was to be 
through the cross. If he spoke of adoption into the family 
of God, it was through the cross. If he spoke of redemption 
and sanctification, it was through the cross. If he spoke of the 
union of believers, bringing the whole universe into one, it 
was round the cross. If he spoke of the conquest over death 
and the grave, it was by the cross ; and if he spoke of the 
hope of everlasting life, it was through the cross. So that 
everywhere the cross was the centre of his teaching, the great 
point of attraction to him, the symbol around which the hopes 
of immortality gathered. 



246 SERMONS. 

We ask, why was this — so strangely at war with the tastes 
of men of the world, which would naturally have been put 
in the background, the very thing which in the eyes of men 
should not have been gloried in — elected by the apostle as the 
theme of his glorying? 

I answer : The apostle gloried in the cross of Christ, first, be- 
cause in the crucifixion was manifested the exceeding sinful- 
ness of sin. Man naturally thinks of sin as but a little matter, 
lie errs, but he is disposed to think the error is transient, 
trivial; and, having erred, he fancies that he may simply re- 
turn to the right path, forget the past, and be saved of God. 
There are very few of us who have those deep views of sin 
which we ought to have, the loathing abhorrence of evil which 
we ought ever to cherish ; but in the cross of Christ is brought 
out the great abhorrence which God has of sin, the absolute 
impossibility of his passing it over without punishment, and 
the fact that sin is so contrary to him that the result of 
it must be death. Now it is seen, as we gather about the 
cross, that there was no means by which the sin of the world 
could be taken away, and man restored to God's favor, but 
through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. " Without the 
shedding of blood there is no remission of sins." And this 
was the lesson early taught to man. How early we cannot 
tell. In all probability it was taught to Adam and Eve im- 
mediately after the fall. It is said that God made to our first 
parents coats of skin; and it is supposed by many that these 
skins were from the animals sacrificed for sin at God's com- 
mand. Be that as it may, we find Abel offering up the vic- 
tim on the altar, and God accepting him, evidently indicating 
that God had commanded to fallen man this oblation. In 
subsequent times, under the Mosaic law, when a man sinned 
he must offer a sacrifice. And these sacrifices were to be for 
sins of ignorance, sins of what you might term accident, as 
well as for deliberate transgression. And they proclaimed 
two things : first, that without the shedding of blood there 
is no remission — that " the wages of sin is death ;" and, on 
the other hand, the great truth that through the shedding of 
blood there would be remission — that through death there 



GLORYING IN THE CROSS. 247 

might be life; and the doctrine of substitution — that, in some 
way, though the sinner had sinned and deserved death, yet 
there was a possibility that, through a mediator, he might be 
spared. 

Now, when we take into view that sin must have death fol- 
lowing it, that God has indissolubly connected death with sin 
as its result, we see how abhorrent it is to Almighty God — 
what a terrible thing it is to transgress against God, and why 
it is written, " The soul that sinneth it shall die." 

Sin is not to be thought of in itself merely, and to be meas- 
ured with some other sin. We may take, as an example, murder, 
and we may feel its terrible character. That terrible character, 
however, is as it relates to man. The result is here ; the wrong 
done, here. It is an offence against God, for it is a transgression 
of his law ; but in the light in which sin is an offence against 
him it is equally an offence, no matter what the law is that is 
transgressed, or in what the transgression consists. The es- 
sence of sin is simply disobedience to God ; and the sin in 
which the disobedience is shown, be it what it may, is that 
which is offensive to God. It is the heart that rebels against 
God ; it is the determination not to obey him, to do as we 
please, that is the essence of sin ; and it may be seen in pri- 
vate as well as in public life; in the smallest as well as the 
largest things. Obedience, a child's obedience, consists in lis- 
tening to the voice of the parent; and a child's disobedience 
may be shown in the smallest thing as well as in the largest. 
The child that disobeys its mother with regard to even lifting 
something from the nursery floor, steadily, persistently, stub- 
bornly refusing to obey, is as much in rebellion against its 
mother as the child that does some great wrong. This rebel- 
lion against lawful authority is the essence of transgression. 

And so man sins against God in rebelling against his law, 
and the transgression God so condemns that the soul of the 
transgressor must perish unless there be a sin-offering. And, 
as we gather about the cross of Christ, as we behold his blood 
shed, as we see the dense darkness that comes down upon him ; 
nay, as we stand by his side when he wrestles in Gethsemane, 
as we watch him at Calvary, and hear his burdened bosom 



248 SERMONS. 

heave, as we hear him cry out, "My God, my God, why hast 
thou forsaken me ?" — we see the sinfulness of sin in this, that 
he suffers when God has laid on him the iniquities of us all. 
And God requires this of him, though his own Son. The 
very moment he takes our place, to stand in our stead, bear 
our load, notwithstanding a voice from the open heavens had 
proclaimed, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
pleased," notwithstanding on the Mount of Transfiguration 
the very Godhead shone out from his garments so that they 
were white as snow, yet when that Son stands in your place 
and in mine the heavens above grow black, the earth shakes, 
the graves are opened, the dead go forth, and the burdened 
bosom of him who is incarnate in humanity feels the load too 
great to be borne even in prospect, and he says, " If it be pos- 
sible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, 
but as thou wilt." And oh, if the beloved Son of God must 
suffer thus when he stands in your place and in mine, how ter- 
rible must be the nature of the sin which we have committed, 
which stains our souls, and renders us obnoxious to the wrath 
of God 1 The first step in the recovery of any one from ill- 
ness is to fully understand the nature of the illness. This is 
essential before the use of the remedy ; and, that man may be 
recovered, he must understand how deep is the stain which 
sin has made. This he learns as he stands beside the cross of 
Christ. There he sees the terrible load that must have fallen 
on him if Christ had not stepped under it and taken it upon 
himself. As he sees all the agony that comes down upon the 
Son of God he seems to feel in his nature something of the 
agony he must have borne himself had not Christ assumed the 
sinner's place and borne it for him. So that the first lesson 
learned at the cross of Christ is the exceeding sinfulness of 
sin. 

Way, there is another aspect in which we see it ; in which 
we condemn it very greatly in others, for we fancy that we 
could not have been such sinners. As we stand near the cross, 
behold how heaven and earth seemed gathered about it ! From 
the heavens God and angels were gazing on the scene. But 
man, for whom Christ dies, is before the cross, and with what 



GLORYING IN THE CROSS. 249 

feeling does he look on him who is becoming sin for him ? 
How does he receive the Lamb who dies in his stead, the 
suffering Son of God who comes to raise him by his own 
humiliation? He ought to have stood before the cross with 
tears of sorrow and yet with tears of joy, and ought to have 
bowed down with grief and with rapture before that Saviour 
who was dying for him. He ought to have, with profound 
rejoicing, thanked God that a Saviour was given. Why, 
when the angels saw that Christ was come they cried out, 
" Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good-will tow- 
ards men !" And when man saw Christ, who had come and 
was suffering for him, he ought to have cried out from the 
depths of his soul, " Blessed be God, who giveth to us a Sav- 
iour, even Jesus Christ the Lord !" But far different were 
the feelings with which men gathered about the cross of 
Christ. They had said, as they stood before the judgment-hall, 
" Away with him ! away with him ! He is not fit to live !" 
And there was the robber; they had said, "Give us Barab- 
bas ! Crucify Christ !" Then consider, too, that in the throng 
about the cross there were possibly many, the members of 
whose families had been helped by Christ. For three years 
he travelled over Judea and Galilee. He had preached in the 
cities, had healed the sick wherever he went. At Jerusalem 
he had stood and proclaimed glad tidings to dying men. He 
had lived in Bethany, and wrought miracles there. He had 
gone to and fro among the poor and wretched and sinning 
everywhere. And now, from all parts of Judea, vast multi- 
tudes of the people had assembled at Jerusalem for the Pass- 
over, and I think it probable that in every family of Judea 
some one had been helped by Christ. Either a fever had left 
the sufferer, or blindness or deafness or lameness or leprosy. 
In some way they had been healed. There hung on the cross 
the man who had done this for their fathers or mothers or 
children, or sisters or brothers or near friends; and yet, as 
they passed by they wagged their heads and said, "He saved 
others; himself he cannot save. If he be the Christ, let him 
come down from the cross, and we will believe on him !" 
Now, think of the sinfulness of sin ! how deep the depravity 



250 SERMONS. 

of the human heart, when there hung the man through whom 
they had received such blessings, and yet they could say, 
"Away with him! His blood be upon us, and upon our 
children !" This depravity shows to us the sinfulness of sin. 
You and I would have stood there, and have done the same. 
We think, not so. The men that stood there had the same 
nature we have, the very same emotions we have ; and sin, 
unrestrained, in the heart, would have led us to the same 
treatment of the Son of God. Nay, in that we do not receive 
Jesus to-day as our full Saviour, we stand by his cross reject- 
ing his atoning blood. Oh the sinfulness of sin ! If to-day 
our hearts have yielded, how long before they yielded ! what 
a struggle to yield ! and how prone we are still to turn from 
the Saviour whom we have known in the infinite fulness of 
his love ! 

But the cross not only shows us the exceeding sinfulness 
of sin, and that until the Son of God himself died for us 
there was no forgiveness, but it shows us the wonderful love 
of God for the sinner. Think in what way it was possible 
that there could have been revealed at once an abhorrence of 
sin and a love for the sinner such as was exhibited in th.e cross 
of Christ. There the Saviour dies because he is in our stead ; 
there he bore the burden because he takes our place. He would 
put himself in the stead of a sinful race, and he must bear what 
fell on them all. The law of God is magnified in that Christ 
bears for man what man must have borne for himself, and 
yet, on the other hand, the love of God is shown in that, though 
we were sinners, such was his love towards us that he gave his 
only -begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should 
not perish but have everlasting life. When the sinner trans- 
gresses, reason says, " Let him die." When man transgressed 
against a Father — kind, loving, compassionate — the law said, 
" Let him die ;" and yet — I speak it accommodating the terms 
to our humanity — God could not give us up. He yearned over 
us, as a father would say of a son, " He is a prodigal, he knows 
he has done wrong ; still he is a son, I cannot forsake him." 
And the father follows him with tears in his eyes, love in his 
heart, bound to him still. So the great Father bends down 



GLORYING IN THE CROSS. 251 

over us. We are his children, erring children, wicked children, 
faithless children ; we are culprits, and yet he asks, " How can 
they he saved ? what is there w T ill bring these children back ?" 
Earth has no offering ; angels have no power ; archangels are 
unable. The Son offers himself for a sacrifice, and the Father 
loves sinners so much that he gives his only-begotten Son. 
Heaven exhausts itself of love to save fallen men. 

Who can doubt the love of God? Who can doubt whether 
God has compassion on him ? I stand by the cross of Christ, 
and while, on the one hand, I read the sinfulness of sin, on the 
other I read the infinite love of the eternal One. He loves 
me though I am a sinner ; he loves me in my sins and in my 
blood, and he loves me so much that he gives heaven's choicest 
treasure to save me from eternal ruin. Is it strange that I 
love God, because he first loved me ? The lessons of salva- 
tion are these : God's love to man becomes the cause of our 
love to God, and in the cross I see the exhibition of his love 
as I can see it nowhere else. I see the love of God in the 
heavens above me, in the shining sun and the sparkling stars; 
I feel the love of God in the air which I inhale : I see it in this 
earth which he has carpeted with green and strewn with flow- 
ers, in the music of the birds, and in all that is beautiful ; but 
how feeble these lessons of the love of God manifested in nat- 
ure, compared with his love manifested in Christ Jesus our 
Lord. Love was seen in creation, but Christ was the creator. 
"All things w r ere made by him and for him." And the Fa- 
ther takes Him who was the express image of his person, and 
by whom all worlds were made, and he comes and lays his life 
down in the place of sinful man. It is love infinite, love eter- 
nal ; and that love I learn at the cross of Christ. 

And then, further, I see at the cross of Christ not only 
the love of God in giving this Saviour for me, but I see in 
that Saviour the exhibition of the plan of salvation, and his 
boundless affection for me in bringing me into harmony with 
the love of God. Man feels he cannot come to God unless 
the way is opened. Christ came to save man. He assumes 
man's place; he pays the penalty; and he stands then in 
such a position that he has a right to ask of God the salvation 



252 - SERMONS. 

of man; and the covenant is, "He that believeth on the Son 
shall be saved." The sinner who comes to Christ, Christ claims 
to be saved by his death. And now, as I stand by the cross, 
Christ pleads for me ; and I hear him saying, "Let the sinner 
go free ; I have died." His wounds intercede ; his agony in- 
tercedes ; his death intercedes ; his resurrection intercedes. 
He stands before the throne of God : 

" Five bleeding wounds he bears, 

Received on Calvary ; 
They pour effectual prayers, 

They strongly plead for me. 
'Forgive him! Oh, forgive!' they cry. 
Nor let that ransomed sinner die." 

But the question comes up, " Can I fully trust the love of 
Christ ? Does he really love me f " Now see what the lesson 
of the cross is. Christ on the cross was surrounded by men 
who thirsted for his blood; men who ought to have prayed 
and worshipped, who ought to have felt grateful. It would 
have been natural for us to say, "If such men, who have re- 
ceived such kindness, thus cursed Christ, let them die; let 
the earth be opened and swallow them up ; let them be ban- 
ished to the world of darkness !" Such w T ould have been the 
language of reason and justice. And yet from the cross Christ 
gazes on them and hears their imprecations ; he knows the 
depth of their sin, raises his eyes towards heaven — his hands 
are transfixed to the cross — and cries, " Father, forgive them, 
they know not what they do !" Now if Christ could pray 
thus for these men who thirsted for his blood, is there not 
reason for us to say, " He prays for us too ?" May we not 
be included in his prayers, wicked as we are? Then look 
at his disciples. For sometimes we fear, possibly, after we 
have professed his name and then wandered from him, his 
love will be taken from us. Even his disciples, with whom 
he had walked for three years, gather round the cross ; but 
where do they stand ? When he cries in agony not one of 
them comes near him. The Shepherd has been smitten, and 
the sheep have been scattered. They stand far off. Peter, 
the bravest of them all, who had said to Jesus, " Though all 
men forsake thee, yet will not I," when Christ was taken to 



GLORYING IN THE CROSS. 253 

the hall of judgment denied and swore that he did not know 
him.' There were, just before the moment of agony, his 
mother and one disciple who stood within speaking distance, 
and the Saviour, looking to his mother, said, " Woman, behold 
thy son !" and, looking to the disciple, " Son, behold thy moth- 
er 1" For Christ, in the midst of his agonies, had time to 
care for his mother. But there at the cross I learn this, that 
though we may even forsake Christ for a time, Christ does 
not forget us. After he rose from the grave among the first 
messages sent was, " Go tell the disciples and Peter. Don't 
forget him. He did abandon me. I heard him curse ; I 
heard the fearful oath; he said he did not know me; he 
forsook me, and the disciples fled ; go tell them and Peter 
that I have risen. Tell them I am the Lord ; that though I 
died I am risen again ; I am the Lord of life and glory. I 
will go before them now ; I will lead them to Galilee ; I will 
bring them back to Jerusalem ; I will take them to Olivet ; I 
will ascend into glory triumphing and triumphant; I will be 
their Father and their God." What a lesson I learn at the 
cross ! And when I am conscious of having wandered, that 
my poor heart has erred, and that I have forgotten my Saviour, 
how lovingly he looks at me, sends word for me to return to 
him, and at the cross feel his boundless love! 

Now in that cross is my salvation. And that is wherein 
the chief glory consists. I live because Christ died. I am 
reconciled to God because Christ bore the load for me. I am 
adopted into God's family because of the death of Jesus 
Christ. And as he died he opened the grave, he opened heav- 
en, and through his death I shall die to sin, and through his 
resurrection I shall rise to righteousness. And as, risen from 
the grave, he w T ent up to glory, as the firstfruits of them that 
slept, the time is coming when I shall hear his voice. I shall 
rest in the grave, but he shall call me and I shall hear, and the 
dead shall live again. And as he shall ascend, so shall I as- 
cend ; as he triumphed over the grave, so shall I triumph. 
This morning I stand by the cross, and by the opening tomb, 
and I can rejoice. I look at death, and I see him take my 
loved ones away and lay them in the grave, but, standing by 



254: SERMONS. 

the cross and by the tomb, I can say, " O death, thou shalt 
die ! O grave, Christ shall burst thy bars, and my beloved 
shall come forth. The day is yet to be when all shall meet 
about the throne of God. These lively hopes I owe, Lord, to 
thy dying love !" 

And now I glory only in the cross of Christ. The cross is 
everything to me. At the cross I see my sins ; there I see 
the boundless love of God ; there I hear the voice of forgive- 
ness ; there I hear the voice of adoption. To-day the cross is 
conquering the world. Jesus, the son of God, is riding forth 
victorious, and I see earth kneeling before him. The apostle 
might have feared the cross would never conquer the world, 
but to-day, living where we are, we see the victories the cross 
has wrought — how it is conquering paganism, superstition of 
every form; and how Christ to-day is honored and adored 
throughout the earth. People of every language and realm, 
of every form of culture and eveiy station, are finding at the 
cross redemption, forgiveness of sins. Then let me glory in 
the cross also. 

Young man, young woman, come to the cross this morning. 
Accept the Saviour as your Saviour; live through his life; 
find redemption in his blood; and may you all be heirs of 
eternal glory through Jesus Christ our Lord ! 



XV. 



dMtr €xm pairing. 



OTTE TEUE KEJOICING* 

" Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto 
you ; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." — 
Luke x. 20. 

The occasion has turned our attention to the results of the 
Christian ministry, and the influence of those results upon the 
minister's own heart. 

After Christ had selected his twelve apostles and sent them 
abroad through Judea, he chose other seventy also, and sent 
them two and two before his face into every city whither he 
himself would go. He gave them charge as to their behavior ; 
he commissioned them to proclaim that the kingdom of God 
w T as come nigh to the people, and to heal the sick. As he 
turned his face towards Jerusalem they went in advance of 
him, and, as some suppose, before reaching the city, they, re- 
turning with joy, met the Saviour, and said, " Lord, even the 
devils are subject unto us through thy name." Elated by 
their success, finding that in the name of Jesus there was 
power — that the sick were healed, devils made to flee away — 
they paused in their ministry and came to render their report. 
He answered, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. 
Behold I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scor- 
pions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall 
by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not, 
that the spirits are subject unto you ; but rather rejoice, be- 
cause your names are written in heaven." 

The first thought to which I shall invite attention is the 
results of the Christian ministry. These, in ancient times, were 
partly of a miraculous character, and partly the fruit of the 
proclamation of the truth. The expression, " The spirits are 

* Delivered before the Graduating Class of the Garrett Biblical Institute. 

17 



258 SERMONS. 

subject unto you," is taken as an emblem of all the results 
which followed from their teaching. The minister in the early 
ages was not only commissioned to proclaim the kingdom of 
God, but was endued with power to work miracles ; signs 
were to follow the preaching of the gospel and even the la- 
bors of those who should believe. I think this gift was fore- 
shadowed in the declaration of John the Baptist, who said of 
Christ, " He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with 
lire." Although very frequently these two expressions, the 
Holy Ghost and fire, are understood to refer to the same gen- 
eral spiritual power, yet, to my mind, for many years, there 
lias seemed to be a broad distinction. For, in the first place, 
had only the baptism of the Holy Ghost been designed, that 
Spirit which reveals not superfluously, would not have added 
the expression, and with fire. Again : This latter phrase seems 
to have been so clearly illustrated on the day of Pentecost as 
to make a distinct impression upon the Church. It will be 
remembered that when Christ met the disciples in an upper 
room, having come they knew not whence, he breathed upon 
them and said, " .Receive ye the Holy Ghost." Having re- 
ceived this Spirit — the Comforter, shed abroad in their hearts 
— they were directed to tarry in Jerusalem till they were en- 
dued with power from on high. On the day of Pentecost, as 
the disciples were with one accord in one place, there came 
suddenly a sound as of a rushing mighty wind, which filled 
all the house, and cloven tongues of fire came down upon 
their heads and they spake with tongues. Miraculous quali- 
fications were imparted to them, and in this, as it seems to 
me, is the key of the expression, " He shall baptize you with 
the Holy Ghost and -with fire. 

The Spirit regenerating and communicating the great fact 
of adoption, purifying and elevating the heart, is signified by 
the first. The second gave to those who received it power to 
act upon the human soul as man had never acted upon it 
before ; power to go abroad into the world, and to work by 
signs and miracles, insomuch that whithersoever a Peter went 
the sick were laid so that his shadow might fall upon them, 
and they be healed. Possibly, in some sense, this baptism of 



OUR TEUE REJOICING. 259 

fire has been continued in the Church, though not in the same 
form as in the early ages. Men are raised up at different 
points and under different circumstances, gifted with a pe- 
culiar power, which may be termed the baptism of fire ; a 
power to act upon the world— a power to rouse a nation from 
stupor — a power to speak with more than words of man's 
wisdom. Be that as it may, this gift was necessary in the 
early ages of the Christian Church for the triumph of Chris- 
tianity. Let preachers claiming to be sent of God go into a 
world which has never heard of Christ — such as was heathen- 
dom at the time of the crucifixion — : how shall the people be 
led to believe the Word ? They speak of Christ — of heaven — 
of a Holy Spirit — they bring strange tidings; but how shall 
man be made to believe ? They enter a strange city ; pass 
through its streets, and tell the story of the Crucified to men 
sunk in sin, and assure them that through the name of Jesus 
their hearts can be changed, and that power shall be given 
them to control their evil dispositions. How shall men be- 
lieve such declarations ? There must be some sign to show 
that these messengers come from God — there must be the 
presence of a power which can be recognized as more than 
human. Hence, Christ bestowed on his apostles the gift of 
working miracles. 

Methinks I see the ambassador of Christ approaching a 
city. It is surrounded by high walls. As he draws near to 
enter, behold ! around the gateway, according to the custom 
of all Oriental cities, the blind and the lame and the deaf are 
sitting, to receive alms. No man can enter that city gate 
while the sun is shining in the heavens without hands being 
stretched out, sightless eyeballs being turned towards him im- 
ploring relief, the deaf bending over as if they would hear 
his footsteps, the cripples showing their distorted limbs and 
asking aid. Every Eastern city at this day presents just such 
a scene. As the apostle passed by these blind and lame and 
emaciated, he paused. He speaks to the blind man, and he 
sees ; he touches the ears of the deaf, and he hears ; he raises 
up the sick whom charity has laid at that gate, and the sick 
are restored to health. Around the city gate the gathering 



260 SERMONS. 

crowd inquire, What new power is this ? What man is this 
who seeks not as others to shun the array of suffering, or to 
turn away from the hands stretched out for alms ? See him 
as he enters the city. He walks not where palaces adorn the 
streets on either hand, and where luxury abounds. He hastes 
to yonder quarters where the lepers dwell, where one may 
see the hands with eaten fingers, and the features wasted 
away, and every mark of wretchedness, from the plague-spot 
on the skin to the carcass almost consumed. He speaks to 
the leper and he is healed ; he touches him and the skin 
comes again like the skin of a little child — perfect, fresh, 
beautiful. The leper rejoices in this power received from on 
high, and gives glory to God. Then, as the crowd gathers 
about him, the apostle declares "it is the name of Jesus that 
has made this man whole whom ye now see ;" the name of 
Jesus opens the eyes ; the name of Jesus unstops the ears ; 
the name of Jesus renews the frame ; the name of Jesus 
takes away every leprous taint ; and the name of Jesus will 
change the guilty and sin -polluted heart. The people are 
ready to receive the messenger; they see what the name of 
Jesus has done; they are persuaded that his name may do 
within them what it has done without. 

Those of you who heard the interesting lecture of our mis- 
sionary from China, delivered some weeks ago in this place, 
will remember that he noted the difficulties which the mis- 
sionary meets in heathen lands from the fact that the people 
cannot believe that he comes except for some selfish purpose. 
No outward miracle is now wrought — How shall the people 
believe ? JSTo converts w T ere made in China, until, as you re- 
member, they saw the missionary put forth such efforts as no 
other man would put forth. They saw not the outward mir- 
acle, but they saw the miracle of a pure and holy heart. They 
saw men bearing fatigue and reproach and hostility — the in- 
fliction of every evil, and yet bearing all unmoved, and they 
learned it was for the sake of Jesus. And whenever that 
idea entered the mind, that it was for the sake of Jesus these 
men did what others would not do, their hearts began to 
yield. There was the miracle — longer indeed in its opera- 



OUR TRUE REJOICING. 261 

tion, consequent] j longer in affecting the heart, but the heart 
was affected, nevertheless. Now, in our own land, and in our 
age of the world, the minister does not expect to see any of 
these strange displays, and yet he is never triumphant in his 
sacred office, and can never exercise his full power until the 
hearts of the people become deeply impressed with the con- 
viction that he comes directly from God; and that conviction 
must be produced, I fancy, much as it was in ancient times. 
The miracle shall not be there in the same form, and yet there 
shall be a miracle of grace. If the minister simply pursues a 
professional life, bestowing his labor for a reward received ; 
if he places himself on the basis of mercantile principles, and 
asks for all his services precisely such a return ; if he, more- 
over, seems to spare himself all the trouble which he may, 
such a man, though he may be listened to, though his social 
qualities may entitle him to the name of friend, will never 
command the hearts of the communit}'. But if he not only 
comes to address the people on the Sabbath, to utter a mes- 
sage of warning or admonition in their hearing; if he cares 
for the blind, the lame, and the poor ; if he visits the abodes 
of wretchedness ; if, as an angel of mercy, he seeks for the 
wandering and the wayward — labors to educate the ignorant 
and the stubborn ; if with tears he pleads with even his ene- 
mies ; if he is ready to do for them every office of kindness ; 
if he performs the work which no other will do, and does it 
manifestly for the sake of Jesus, the hearts of men will open 
to receive him. He may not be as eloquent as some, he may 
not be as powerful in argument as others, he may not have 
the fancy which shall gather stores of imagery from all de- 
partments of creation, but when he tells the story of the cross 
the eye will be tearful, the heart will throb, and the anxious 
spirit will feel that God speaks through the minister of the 
sanctuary. I would say to you, my young brethren, that I 
believe much of ministerial labor is lost in every community, 
because this impression is not early and deeply made. 

If miracles are no longer to be found in the Christian 
Church as in the apostles' days, there have been results flow- 
ing from apostolic teaching, and from the teaching of the 



262 SERMONS. 

Christian ministry, since that day, greater than the wonders 
which were wrought by apostolic hands. Before the coming 
of Christ there had never been a nation raised by teaching 
from a state of deep degradation to purity and holiness. The 
history of the world had been a history of downward ten- 
dencies; a history of crime and war and blood. One na- 
tion indeed there had been, separated from others, whose God 
was the Lord. That nation had received the choicest bless- 
ings. Before it the sea was opened, the river was dried 
up; for it bread came down from heaven, rocks had poured 
out their crystal streams ; for it, God had appeared in the 
cloud to be their shade by day, and their fire by night ; he 
had led them for forty years in the wilderness, and their gar- 
ments had not grown old. He had spread a fear of them 
among all the nations whither they were going ; at the sound of 
their voices the walls of the city fell down. The sun had 
paused in heaven, and the moon had stayed in her course in 
behalf of the children of Israel. Yet that people among 
whom God dwelt lapsed into idolatry. So far from lifting up 
the nations around them, they themselves were borne down- 
ward, and swept away, till scarcely a remnant was left. There 
was no example of any nation having been saved by teach- 
ing, philosophic or moral. But Christianity has produced 
this great miracle. Her teachers have gone to savage tribes 
and they have laid aside their savage garb, and put on Chris- 
tian dress. The lion heart has been changed into the heart 
of the lamb ; the idol has been thrown down, and the temple 
has been opened for pure worship. Man's intellect has awak- 
ened from the stupor of ignorance, and begun not only to 
measure the beauties and glories of this world, but to claim 
the universe as its birthright. The islands of the sea have 
heard this gospel, and have been made to live. Nay, we our- 
selves have exemplified all this; for what were the young 
race of Saxons, Angles, and Jutes that dwelt on the corner 
of Denmark looking out on the North Sea % What were they 
but a race of pirates — men of bold hearts, of great courage, but 
men who worshipped they knew not what? They practised 
bloody rites — were bowed down under superstitious fears ; had 



OUR TRUE REJOICING. 263 

never heard of the gospel, and were living in barbarism. The 
gospel visited our fathers— behold its influence ! It led them 
into broad possessions ; it built the church, the school, the col- 
lege ; it bridged the streams, and made the railway span the 
land ; it sent the lightning flashing thought from one end of 
the earth to the other ; man has learned to subdue nature and 
to feel that his home is to be near the bosom of God. 

JSTow the minister has this testimony to take with him to 
men who can read and think. lie can point to the heathen 
nation in the presence of a Christian one — changing its relig- 
ion, and rising into life. This is a standing miracle, greater 
than opening the eye or unstopping the ear, because it is a 
miracle wrought on mind. It is the conquest of a nobler 
power than matter. It is the raising up of man to become 
a son of God. 

Again : Not only is this true in the mass, but it is so in re- 
spect to the complete transformation of individual tastes and 
powers. There are witnesses now to every declaration which 
the minister is required to make. Does he say that the gos- 
pel of Christ elevates the taste ? he has examples of it. Yon 
man who was steeped in sin and on the very verge of ruin 
has heard the gospel, and behold he has thrown away the 
cup ; he has tasted of the cup of salvation ; he has left his as- 
sociates and their revelry, and you find him reading the Word 
of Life, and then the volumes of science and literature ; you 
find him communing with nature ; there is the love of the 
beautiful, the pure, and the good manifest in him ; his house 
is smiling with neatness, and his grounds are adorned with 
flowers. There is a transformation of taste. Again : There 
is one under the dominion of passion. Approach him, and 
he flashes quick as the nitre under the spark. When his soul 
rages as a storm, he feels he has no power to control himself. 
He is like Peter the Great, who, with all his greatness, was 
so passionate he would sometimes, on a moment's provocation, 
smite down a friend, and then shed bitter tears of remorse. 
After such a scene he exclaimed, " I, who have conquered an 
empire, am not able to conquer myself." Yet this very man 
has conquered himself by listening to the gospel. The name 



264: SERMONS. 

of Jesus has sounded in Ills ears, and bids all his passions be 
still. Anger has subsided ; he is meek and gentle. Insult 
him now ; though he has all the sensitive heart he once had, 
yet he flashes not in anger. All this he does for Christ's sake. 
There is the change. It is a standing miracle. It is the 
power of the gospel to which the minister is now able to ap- 
peal. There, too, is a man who was the victim of appetite, of 
lust, of avarice, of every evil desire that can torment the hu- 
man bosom ; and now he sits at the feet of his Master and 
pours forth his soul in thanksgiving, and spends his life in 
doing good — that is a miracle which has been produced by 
the preaching of the gospel. 

Again : The individual joy that is the product of this — is 
it not seen all over the world? See that man, sunk but a mo- 
ment ago into the very pit of ruin, and now he utters the 
song of salvation. Draw near him, and he tells you, "As far 
as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed my sins 
from me." Come see him who was the victim of remorse, 
who felt that his sin must burden him till his dying day ; yet 
how his heart leaps for joy ! You ask him what intelligence 
has cheered his soul, and he replies, " The blood of Christ cleans- 
eth from all sin." Here are miracles wrought all about us. It 
is no longer necessary that nature shall give her testimony ; 
the sun need not now pause in his career, for miracles sur- 
round us — living miracles — in the nations of the earth, in the 
communities in which we live, in the history of Christianity. 
Miracles of grace are in our families, in our own households, 
living witnesses of the power of the gospel. 

As the Christian minister performs his work he sees these 
results. He preaches ; the man who was profane yesterday, 
to-day is uttering praises to God. The man who was covet- 
ous yesterday has given back all that he had taken wrong- 
fully, and is of a meek, lowly, and generous heart. The man 
who was steeped in iniquity has repented of his sins, and has 
become a virtuous citizen. As the minister witnesses these re- 
sults of his teaching, the natural tendency must be to rejoice. 
And yet, when he goes to the Saviour now, as the seventy 
did when they made report — " The devils are subject unto me 



OUR TRUE REJOICING. 265 

through thy name" — and rejoices because hearts are con- 
quered, and trophies of grace abound, through the name of 
Jesus, under his preaching, the voice sounds from heaven, 
"Kejoice not in this, but rather rejoice because your name 
is written in heaven." 

" But," is it asked, '* ought it not to be a matter of joy that 
our friends, our kindred, our fellow-citizens, are brought near 
to God? Did not the angels rejoice? Does not the Saviour 
himself rejoice? Why, then, is it said to the minister, ' Re- 
joice not in this ' ?" I answer, this expression is to be under- 
stood as are many expressions in the word of God, as indicative 
of preference, and not as of a strictly negative character. And 
according to the idiomatic form, with which many of you are 
acquainted, the expression may be rendered, " Rejoice not so 
much that spirits are subject to you," rejoice not so much 
over this success of the gospel in your ministry, as that your 
names are written in heaven. Thus it is said, "Jacob have I 
loved, but Esau have I hated ;" that is, I have preferred Ja- 
cob, that Christ should be of his descendants rather than of 
the line of Esau. So it is said, " No man can serve two mas- 
ters," and yet our experience proves that a man may obey 
two masters when their command shall not conflict with 
each other; but there comes a time when he must prefer 
one to the other. So this language would mean simply — 
Rejoice not so much in ministerial efficiency and success as 
that your names are written in heaven. 

I dwell a few moments on this part of my theme because I 
believe ministers, especially young ministers, require that at- 
tention should be called to this great truth. Christ had not 
directed the attention of his disciples to it unless it had been 
necessary. And now I proceed to say that the personal sal- 
vation of the minister is attended with unusual difficulties. 
The common impression of the world is that it is easy for the 
minister to find his way to heaven. My own conviction is 
that the minister finds difficulties in his pathway unknown to 
nearly every other heart. It is evident to all, in the first 
place, that he cannot be saved, nor have his name written in 
heaven, except by strictly obeying God. There is laid upon 



266 SERMONS. 

him an office, a work, of great responsibility — a work encom- 
passed with difficulty. He is commanded to go out into the 
world ; he must visit families ; he must speak to men far his 
superiors in many qualities ; he talks of the healing of the 
soul to the physician ; he talks of the law to the judge upon 
the bench, or the jurist at the court; he talks of the science 
of salvation to the professor and the teacher of science. He 
is to meet all, from the highest to the lowest in society, and 
to speak for God unto every one of them. But his soul 
quails within him, and he asks, Who is sufficient for these 
things ? Well is it for the young man if, under the first im- 
pressions made upon him when he finds himself called to 
preach the gospel, and looks at the responsibilities of the call- 
ing, he does not think of fleeing, as did Jonah from Nineveh, 
instead of going to proclaim that "Nineveh shall be de- 
stroyed." It was a terrible message ; and sometimes the mes- 
sage put into our mouths to utter is a message fearful to our- 
selves. But it must be declared, and though the young man 
may tremble, there is no way for him to save his soul but by 
an unwavering going forward in the path of duty. 

Here, then, are difficulties that beset him at the entrance 
upon his work. But suppose him to have begun. He is partic- 
ularly liable to be tempted to a life of indolence. The reason 
is because, unlike the other professions of life, in his calling 
there is no strict surveillance of his time. He prepares, in- 
deed, for the services of the Sabbath ; yet even if his prepa- 
rations be very partial, few, possibly, will be aware of the 
fact. The people will pardon him, because they know not 
how busily occupied he may have been. He may often fail 
in his study to fill his mind with the thoughts of the great 
authors, and to prepare himself with lessons of instruction, 
but then who knows how his time has been spent? The at- 
torney has his client continually prompting his memory by 
calling upon him and inquiring into the progress of his case ; 
he cannot, if he would, without losing all his professional em- 
inence, neglect to attend to the business intrusted to his care. 
The physician must visit his patients; he cannot miss the 
daily call, or the report of his negligence will speed through 



OUR TRUE REJOICING. 267 

the community and ruin him in his profession. So it is with 
the man of business ; he must be at his office — he must be 
engaged from day to day. But as to the minister, who are 
his patients? Who are his clients? They utter no word. 
Yon poor drunkard, who ought to be reclaimed, has no word 
of complaint because the minister has not visited him ; yon 
backslider, wandering in sin, is not heard to murmur because 
the minister did not follow him, and throw his arms about his 
neck, and try to win him back to the sanctuary. They for 
whom the minister ought to put forth the greatest exer- 
tions are not seen in the church to make report of his negli- 
gence. And then lie has no office hours, no system apparent 
to the public. He must have system for himself if he hopes 
to succeed, and most carefully must he redeem the time. Yet 
there is a liability to slothfulness to which I fancy no other 
vocation is so constantly exposed. How vast are his respon- 
sibilities ! If he neglects his duty it is not the loss of a pa- 
tient ; it is not the loss of a suit or the derangement of busi- 
ness, but the loss of an immortal soul. Eternal misery seems 
to be skirting him on every side, darkness of night is about 
him ; God has given him a light to hold up in the eyes of the 
world, and unless he be as steady as the light-house on the 
sea-shore, unless he keep his lamp constantly and brightly 
burning, souls shall be wrecked, and their shrieks shall be his 
torment throughout eternity. 

Again : He has strong temptations to preach himself and not 
Christ Jesus the Lord. The attorney may have an inclination 
to use rhetoric — may be disposed to cull beautiful flowers and 
adorn his pleading, and yet the plea must be made at the mo- 
ment or never. All his arguments, all his powers, all his efforts, 
must be put in the plea or the suit may be lost. JNo chance 
to plead again in that case. But the minister addresses the 
congregation, and is tempted to say, " If I make no impres- 
sion to-day I shall have a chance on the following Sabbath. I 
may indulge in pretty sentences, beautiful figures, this morn- 
ing; I shall make a stronger appeal at night, and I shall do 
better next month" — and thus he is tempted to forget that 
every message is a message of life or death to many who wait 



26S SERMONS. 

upon his ministry. He is tempted to seek applause. Human 
nature burns in him as in other men, and how difficult is it to 
divest him of the feeling of selfishness so likely to affect him 
in the pulpit and to mar all his performances ! 

Again : The very word of God that the minister studies 
may do him less good than it does the non-professional reader. 
Why is this ? I take my Bible — my heart is sad and I seek 
some comforting promise. I bend over the page — my mind 
rests for a moment on that precious passage: "Let not your 
heart be troubled : ye believe in God, believe also in me. In 
my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, 
I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you ; and 
if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and 
receive you unto myself" — and just as the heart is begin- 
ning to grasp the sweetness of Christ's words there springs 
up the thought, "that will be a fine passage to unfold to 
my congregation," and before I am aware I am preparing 
a sermon for my people, instead of resting my soul on the 
riches of the promise. You, my young brethren — for I would 
speak in all plainness before God — you will have need to 
guard this point with extraordinary care. There is danger 
of reading the Bible as a professional book — useful to us in 
preparing our sermons and exhortations — and not taking to 
our souls the great depth and richness of its lessons. Then, 
again, there is a temptation to be impatient of contradiction. 
The office of a teacher tends to make a man dogmatical. Look 
at this man who has spent all his days in teaching. As he 
grows old he is almost unwilling to hear an objection brought 
against his special views. He has so long instructed others 
that he is liable to fancy himself well skilled on almost every 
subject. Hence he becomes dogmatical and imperious in his 
disposition. This is a temptation very strongly assailing hu- 
man nature, and one to which the minister is liable. 

But if I pass from all these there are evil spirits in the 
world. The " prince of the power of the air " still worketh 
in the hearts of the children of disobedience. Such powers 
assail the minister more than any other. And why ? It is 
the aim of those powers of darkness to prevent the success of 



OUR TRUE REJOICING. 269 

the truth ; but the success of truth shall be best prevented by 
causing the minister himself to fall. In the army if the bul- 
let can be sped to the heart of the general, and he dies, the 
whole column will be thrown into disorder. If your leader 
shall flee, thousands follow his example and flee also. If the 
minister can be betrayed into sin, what a stab shall the cause 
of Christ receive ! And hath he not a heart like other men ? 
Is he not as liable as other men to temptation? Hath he not 
all the desires and passions of other men? Is he not liable to 
be assailed on every hand, and if he can be successfully as- 
sailed what ruin overtakes the cause of Christ ! As infidelity 
triumphs over the fallen minister the very demons in the pit of 
perdition are heard to echo the shout of triumph. The man 
of God who was persuading men to be reconciled to God, he 
himself has fallen ! Here are the difficulties that hedge up 
our pathway. Even friends allure us. The members of the 
church, in mistaken sympathy sometimes, draw us into world- 
ly contests — would have us abate some part of the zeal of our 
ministry, and betake ourselves somewhat to secular employ- 
ments. If in the midst of these evils the minister can keep 
his heart right with God, and feel every moment that his 
name is written in heaven, he may well rejoice. He passes 
through no difficulties without, as a compensation, God mak- 
ing him exceedingly joyful. 

Then, again, much joy as there is, and ought to be, in the 
conversion of the world, there is a joy in the salvation of 
one's soul which every Christian may feel, which I think is 
above every other description of joy. For, when the soul 
has full communion with God, then are brought an infinity 
of joyous resources to it. Have you ever thought how 
near you are, if truly converted, to the centre of the uni- 
verse % You have heard astronomers speaking of planets re- 
volving around the sun, of central stars around which these 
suns may revolve, and these revolving in their turn around 
one great centre, which is the throne of God — the centre of 
love, of majesty, of glory. He who is in communion with 
God is very near that centre. To him the order of the uni- 
verse is this : the throne of God, then Christ, the mediator, 



270 SERMONS. 

next to him the saved sinner. Wherever the saved soul is, 
he is close to Christ, and Christ is always by the throne of 
God. Take the universe through ; the saved soul is beside 
Christ, and Christ is beside the Father ! Oh, what a position ! 
Angels never stood there ; seraphim in all their glory never 
stood there ; no ! it is the sinner saved by grace who finds 
his Eden near the throne of God ! And if so, what sources of 
joy! intellectual joy, pleasures of heart, full enjoyment in 
God! All that men can desire comes from God, and here 
will be joy unspeakable and full of glory. Other joys are 
speakable, this is unspeakable. The mother, when her lost son 
comes home, is almost ready to swoon with ecstasy, but she can 
tell her joy ; it is wot full of glory — not full, because that son 
is still subject to infirmities and disease, and may wander away 
again and die. The man who is saved from the wreck, and 
has touched the shore — he is joyful, but his joy is not full of 
glory, because he still has before him a life of struggle and 
contest, of temptation and of sorrow. But when the soul is 
brought into perfect union with God, when it stands on the 
verge of heaven, the joy that fills the heart is not only un- 
S23eakable, but full of glory, for there is no shade of darkness 
— no tinge of sorrow. God is there forever; the same in all 
his fulness. And when the soul can look forward to realize 
what it shall be, changed from glory to glory into the image 
of God in its eternal progression, shall it not be joyful ? May 
it not be so full of glory that the joy shall be unutterable 
even by an angel's tongue ! 

From these considerations we should rejoice more over our 
own salvation, our own nearness to God, than over what w T e 
may accomplish in our ministry. Our special care should be, 
as ministers, to see that our own hearts are right with God. 
There is an inference at this point of a fearful character. A 
man may have success in his ministry and yet his name may 
not be in the Lamb's book of life. I have no information in 
the New Testament that Judas wrought fewer miracles than 
did the other disciples. It is not intimated that there was 
any difference in the result of their labors, between this one 
into whom Satan entered, and those who were faithful. All 



OUR TRUE REJOICING. 271 

wrought miracles, and spirits were subject unto them, but 
Judas had no reason to rejoice. God usually works most 
powerfully by holy men, yet, if a man can produce the im- 
pression that he is a good man, his efforts may be crowned 
with success, though he may be at heart exceedingly base. It 
is possible that such results may take place, but, oh, the re- 
sponsibility of the minister ! Speaking to others, trying to 
lead others forward, and himself far from God, and to be, in 
the end, a castaway ! 

I shall not say that the minister must not rejoice over his 
work — far from it ; as I have said already, the angels rejoice 
in heaven over every soul that repenteth. Nay, more than this : 
immediately after our Saviour had uttered this charge, " he 
rejoiced in spirit." The evangelist adds, " In that hour Jesus 
rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of 
heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the 
wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes ; even 
so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." 

Thus while the Saviour said to his disciples, rejoice not over 
this so much as over the record of your own salvation, he 
himself rejoiced. Methinks I see him as he casts his glance 
over the wise of Greece and Rome, the Jewish Sanhedrim, 
the doctors and teachers, the Scribes and Pharisees, and as he 
sees them obstinate in their perverseness he exults that, while 
all the powers of the world are in darkness, God hath revealed 
himself even unto babes ; to these fishermen of Galilee, to 
these men gathered from humble life, God had made known 
the mighty things of his Spirit; and as they had preached, 
power had accompanied their word to the hearts of them that 
believed. Methinks I hear the answer of Christ when the 
disciples came back, and thought, in their simplicity, that they 
would convey tidings which he knew not: "This day spirits 
are subject unto us, devils obey us through thy name ;" but 
Jesus, smiling, replies, " I beheld Satan as lightning fall from 
heaven." Look at the figure. Quick, instantaneous, sudden 
as the lightning's flash, the power of darkness seems to van- 
ish. If Satan is conquered and if spirits are cast out by the 
word of the Son of God, the conquest is not so remarkable. 



272 SERMONS. 

Satan, probably, had some knowledge as to who this Son of 
God was ; he had tempted him ; he had watched him in his 
career ; for him to work miracles and to cause the devils to 
flee was not so strange a conquest. But here, seventy men 
selected from the common ranks of the followers of Christ, 
men unknown to fame, go forth, and as they speak the name 
of Jesus the devils flee. Then, indeed, Satan falls ! his power 
crumbles beneath him. Over this Christ rejoices; over this 
all heaven rejoices ; over this the minister of Christ, too, lias 
a right to be joyful ; because the work of God is prospering 
around him and through his message. Yet never so much 
may he rejoice in this as in the consciousness that his own 
soul is at one with God, and that he is, by the indwelling of 
Christ in his heart, the means of accomplishing this great work. 
You are now in the spring-tide of life, and you live, not for 
the present age merely, but for all time. As I said a few mo- 
ments ago, you have all the difficulties growing out of the study 
of the Word of God. You are tempted not to apply it per- 
sonally ; but as a compensation there is greater joy if you are 
successful ; for every attempted exhibition of divine truth, 
provided yon still claim the sweetness of the promise, develops 
new beauties to your mind and you grasp it with fresh zeal. 
And then, again, if Satan does desire to have you as he did Si- 
mon, that he might sift you as wheat, when you are converted 
you shall strengthen your brethren. Thus shall you triumph 
over the wiles of the enemy ! You will be able to commu- 
nicate your triumphs to others, who shall in turn communicate 
them down the whole length of the ages of time. Take one 
passage as an illustration. Go yonder to Erfurt — enter the 
cloisters of its monastery — see that little room, open and enter 
there, and the monk Luther is poring over the Word of God. 
He has been afflicted, his soul is sad ; see ! he has written 
the walls all over with verses — sometimes desponding, some- 
times hopeful. A pious old monk, whose own heart has gone 
through such trial, finds him bowed in heart, and he whispers 
to him the passage, "The just shall live by faith." As he 
looks at the promise, God sets his soul free. His sickness 
vanishes, and his soul rises to joy, and he goes forth a strong 



OUR TRUE REJOICING. 273 

man to battle with the monster, sin. And in his battling he 
writes down his experience ; his views of this faith — and how 
it warms the heart ! This lesson, deeply inwrought in his own 
heart, he writes for others. Luther dies. Two hundred years 
pass away. Go to London. Enter that little street, so nar- 
row a wagon can scarcely drive through it; pass into that 
little room, and there is a company of praying men and 
women unknown to fame, but an Oxford collegian, who has 
been to America to preach the gospel, comes into the midst 
of them, and sits down. One of them takes up the Com- 
mentaries of Luther and reads the preface to the Romans; 
this young collegian follows the reading, and, as he is lis- 
tening, he says, "My heart was strangely warmed; I felt 
that Christ loved me, even me ;" and Wesley w T ent forth to 
preach and to spread this glorious truth over the land. Was 
it not worth while for Luther to have had that conflict ? Was 
not there meaning in his strange agony of spirit, and in that 
of Wesley ? Thousands of others have been blessed by these 
writings of Luther, and how many thousands have felt the 
impress of the burning thoughts that cluster around the great 
passage, " The just shall live by faith." 

And now, young gentlemen, as you go from this institution, 
remember you are not to glory in superior advantages, though 
I am glad you enjoy them. You are not to glory in aught 
of earth, but you are to rejoice that your names are written in 
the Lamb's book of life. Then go forth to conquer this world 
to God. You will have severe battles, but there is a victory 
— and there may be for you a victory against the most fearful 
odds, if the spirit is only nerved completely to the conflict. 
Several centuries ago war was raging between the Turks and 
the Christians of Moldavia. It was under Bajazet II., one of 
Turkey's most illustrious monarchs ; a battle was fought, and 
the Moldavian forces were completely routed. The general, 
Stephen, whom they call the " Great," because of his subse- 
quent victories, fled, with his scattering forces, to a fort. As 
his mother looked from the walls of the fortress she saw her 
son in his retreat, and, as he came near, she, aided by her 
women, closed the gates against him, and, lifting her hand tow- 

18 



274 SERMONS. 

ards heaven, she said, " I call Heaven to witness, my son, you 
shall never enter the gates of this fortress unless you come in 
as conqueror of the Turks." That mother's voice stirred him 
to activity. He gathered his forces, and with ten thousand 
Christian soldiers he vanquished seventy thousand Moham- 
medans. It was a mother's word that burned in the soul of 
her son. If in after-days discouragement shall come upon 
you, and you shall feel that you are vanquished, listen for a 
mother's voice, from glory, saying, " Never shall you enter 
ti^ese doors unless you come as conquerors of the world and 
of sin." Nerve yourselves for conflict — gird you, quit you 
like men. Though you may have a terrible passage before 
you, as had Xenophon with his ten thousand soldiers, amid 
deiiles and precipices and torrents, with hostile armies to stop 
the wa}', yet press on. Though one may fall here and an- 
other there, remember there is a time coming when, like that 
retreating army, you shall ascend the last mountain-top, and 
look out on the ocean of eternity. You remember the thrill- 
ing story of those brave men. When the difficulties of the 
retreat w r ere nearly over, and the sea once gained, they could 
reach Greece in safet} r , they ascended a mountain whence the 
sea was visible. When the first rank reached the summit, 
oh, how the shout burst spontaneously from every lip, " The 
sea ! the sea !" and as the next rank followed, still the shout 
went up as every heart bounded with joy, " The sea ! the 
sea !" 

It was a joyful time when on the mountain-top and down 
the mountain -side the soldiers rejoiced because their perils 
were over! Such a time is coming for us! The Christian 
ministry have been passing through defiles and difficulties 
and sorrows all along the centuries of life. The fathers have 
gone forward, and, at last, gaining the summit, they have 
cried, as they gazed into eternity, "The sea! the sea!" Their 
sons are pressing closely after them ; and already we hear our 
brethren, as they gain the mount of vision, crying, " The sea ! 
the sea !" We, too, shall behold it, for, though it has been roll- 
ing for ages, it will roll on still, an emblem of the power of 
an endless life, and of the glory of God. 



OUR TRUE REJOICING. 275 

Then, my brethren, fulfil the Christian ministry. Be men 
of labor — men of patience — men of zeal — and yon shall be 
men of triumph. When taken home, then you shall know 
the fulness of the reward which God hath bestowed on them 
that love him. 



XVI 



€\)i Cjntrtfj n $lnrt uf lafttq unit of ^rarsr. 



THE CHURCH A PLACE OF SAFETY AND OF PRAISE. 

"But thou shalt call thy walls Salvation and thy gates Praise*. " — Isaiah 
lx. 18. 

That this portion of the Word of God refers to the Chris- 
tian dispensation, to the coming of the latter-day glory, is ev- 
ident from the fact that the opening of the ensuing chapter 
is the beautiful passage quoted by the Saviour, " The Spirit 
of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed 
me to preach good tidings unto the meek ;" and he added, 
"This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." So that 
in reading the important predictions contained in this proph- 
ecy we are sure they refer to the establishment, the diffusion, 
and the glory of the Christian Church. Several peculiarities 
of this Church are here definitely set forth. It is presented, 
first, as a place of great attractiveness: " Arise, shine ; for 
thy light is come." As the light of the sun draws all eyes 
to it, so the Church is represented as arising and shining 
among the sons of men. Its influence in attracting people 
from all parts of the earth is shown in that the multitudes 
from the distant isles shall come, until, as if excited with as- 
tonishment, the Church itself shall cry out, "Who are these 
that fly as a cloud, and as doves to their windows?" And 
then the gifts which the people coming to the Church of God 
shall bring — their gold, their silver, and their camels bear- 
ing spices from distant parts of the earth — all these making 
their offerings, it is said, " I will glorify the house of my glo- 
ry." And not only the gifts to be laid on the altar, but the 
church itself shall be beautiful. It is said that the fir-tree and 
the box shall contribute of their excellence. " The glory of 
Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir-tree, the pine-tree, and 
the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary ; and 
I will make the place of my feet glorious." 



280 SERMONS. 

It is represented, also, as a place of comfort. The sons of the 
afflicted shall come and receive joy ; and then it shall have 
such a reflex influence upon the world that for brass there 
shall be gold, and for iron, silver, and for wood, brass, and for 
stones, iron, that this coming Church shall add to the wealth 
and to the prosperity of mankind, until the sons of men, re- 
garding the interests of God's house, shall feel it to be a place 
of comfort, of beauty, and of joy. And then, contemplating 
it, it is said, "Thou shalt call thy walls Salvation and thy gates 
Praise." 

These words are spoken, I have said, of the Christian Church. 
Sometimes the Church is figured as a temple, and its various 
parts are described ; but then a broader figure is presented, 
that of a city, and it is this idea that is brought before us this 
morning — the walls of a city rising in their grandeur and the 
gates in their strength. Here the Christian Church finds 
itself, as the people of a city, surrounded by walls which an 
enemy cannot break down — which, though hosts should sur- 
round, yet all their weapons are too feeble to destroy. And 
as the people within the city shall gaze at the strength of 
their defences they will rejoice in the walls of salvation. 
Enemies may gather, but cannot overthrow them, for they 
are founded on a rock ; and though hosts, like overflowing 
billows, may come, yet God shall be the strength of the walls, 
and they shall be for the safety of the people. 

And, again, as the gates were places where they went in 
and out (and even of a besieged city sometimes the gates 
were opened temporarily, and men went out for the purpose 
of making treaties or for other objects of communication), 
so it is represented here that, whenever the gates shall open, 
whenever the citizens have occasion to go forth in the pres- 
ence of an enemy, it shall be w r ith the notes of joy. Not 
only do the walls protect, but they are happy within them ; 
and from the open gates no sound of lamentation is heard 
suing for terms of peace, but the voice of gladness rings forth ; 
so that the walls are salvation and the gates are praise. The 
two ideas, it seems to me, that occur to every mind, are these : 
that the Christian Church is a place of safety and a place of joy. 



THE CHURCH A PLACE OF SAFETY AND OF PRAISE. 281 

In the first place, the Christian Church is a place of safety, 
because it is free from the evil practices that disturb the har- 
mony of society and lead youth astray. There may be wicked 
men entering into the Church of God, who are hypocritical and 
base at heart, but within the Church there are no wicked prac- 
tices. The voice of profanity is not heard ; there is no strife 
or violence ; no murderous weapons are there. Nothing that 
can harm the purity or the peace of society is practised with- 
in those walls; and, notwithstanding, on God's holy day there 
are multiplied millions to-day in the sanctuaries of the living 
God, from one end of the earth to the other, there is no prac- 
tice indulged in and nothing cultivated which is contrary to 
purity and peace — to the honor of God and to the safety of 
men. Of what other assemblages can this be said? If our 
sons and our daughters frequent the house of God, and attend 
upon all the exercises of devotion, it is to them a place of safe- 
ty, because it is a place of purity and of peace. 

In the second place, it is a place free from temptation. We 
may bring evil suggestions in our bosoms ; there may be men 
planning evil to-da\ r , for all I know, in the house of God, but 
there is no outward temptation, there are no allurements there. 
Go elsewhere, and the syren song is sung, and there are solici- 
tations to sin. Walk the streets, frequent the public gardens, 
go to places of amusement, and how much temptation is be- 
fore us, how many allurements to evil ! Youth are never safe 
where such dangers are perpetually encircling them. But, 
whatever may be said of hypocrisy or error or defect or in- 
firmity among Christian people, at least in the house of God 
and in the public assemblies of the Christian Church there 
are no sources of temptation ; all is purity, all is harmony, all 
is peace. 

Again, it is a place of safety, because the trains of thought 
which are brought before the mind are such as banish evil sug- 
gestions. It is said of man, as he thinketh in his heart so is 
he. A man's thoughts form his character. A man may, to 
all public appearance, be pure, and yet, if he is indulging un- 
clean thoughts, he is forming a bad character and is becoming 
wicked. If a man be intending wrong, though he may not 



282 SERMONS. 

utter bis purpose with bis lips, be is destroying bis own better 
nature. The world is often astonished by base actions of 
men supposed to have been good. It is an old saying that 
no man becomes suddenly base. It is by indulging wrong 
thoughts, by familiarizing himself with improper scenes, and 
by harboring wrong purposes, tbat the barriers against sin are 
finally broken down, and he is led to the commission of evil; 
and wherever there are influences favoring such thoughts so- 
ciety is unsafe. Thus the boy hears the oatb, and gradually 
is familiarized with evil ; he hears the licentious expression, 
and a stain is made upon his heart, his thoughts are contami- 
nated, and his soul becomes polluted. But, consider the class 
of thoughts suggested in tbe Church of the living God. In 
the first place, they are of a spiritual character. They call a 
man, for the time being, from the material, and carry him into 
the realm of the spiritual. Do tbe Scriptures speak of the 
past, and does the minister tell of the past? Tben he speaks 
of tbe scenes of creation, of the goodness or the severity of 
God in the ages gone. The mind is led away from the out- 
ward ; we forget tbe things material immediately about us; the 
soul learns its kinship with the distant; and by some means 
we feel that we are with our first parents in the garden of 
Eden, and that our happiness is bound up in their conduct. 
We feel that we are the kindred of those upon whom all the 
waves of the overflowing flood came and of them who were 
saved in the ark. We stand beside our brethren as we see 
the walls of tbe waters of the Red Sea rising and the host 
passing through ; we catch the kindling joy of Miriam and her 
band as they proclaim the salvation of the people ; we come 
to Sinai, and look up in the clouds and listen to the voice of 
God ; we gather up manna and feed upon it, and are part of 
the host of ancient Israel ; we join them in their conquests 
and victories ; we live away from the present, and are drink- 
ing in sympathies with the distant, the good, the wise, aud 
the great. 

But are we led to what shall be? Then we pass beyond 
tins state, and reach the time when the heavens shall be 
rolled together as a scroll, when the earth shall flee awa} 7 , 



THE CHURCH A PLACE OF SAFETY AND OF PRAISE. 283 

when there shall be no more sea, when the new heaven and 
the new earth shall descend from God, and when there shall 
be a world of righteousness. We think of the decisions of 
the great day and the associations of eternity, and how trifling 
then seem to be the associations of earth ; our thoughts are 
spiritualized, and the power of the material over us is broken. 
It is the material that leads us downward. Our gross in- 
stincts join us to earth; it is man's passions binding him to 
the outward and the material that have ever proved his ruin. 
It was the appetite indulged in the garden of Eden that led to 
sin, and it is always by the visible and the material that man 
is led astray. If you can break that bond of thought, and 
make him forget the ties that hold him to earth, free him 
from the impulses that draw him down, teach him that he is 
linked with eternity, and that his home is the eternity to 
come, draw him to think of kindred dear who have just gone 
beyond the vale, lead him to communion with the invisible 
and eternal, you give to his thoughts elevation and sublimi- 
ty. Now, it is thus that the Christian Church, by imparting 
thoughts of this kind, is leading man away from the visible, 
making him better. It is when youth is absorbed in the visi- 
ble, it is when the glass, the syren song, and evil passions al- 
lure and stir, that we fear for our children. There is no fear 
if heavenly thoughts are in their hearts, if heavenly visions 
come to their minds. The Church is this place of safety; its 
walls are salvation when the mind can be brought under the 
influence of its sublime intellections. 

Again, it is a place of safety, because the moral standard in 
the Church is so much higher than the standard of the world. 
I do not say that all Christian men attain to this standard, nor 
that all who are nominal Christians live according to it; but 
I do say that the standard for conduct exhibited in the Chris- 
tian Church is the only standard of perfect purity among 
men. If we look for the rule of our behavior, the great ex- 
emplar is Christ Jesus the Lord ; and the direction of the 
Scripture is, "looking unto Jesus." We are to be followers 
of him ; we are to take him as our pattern. His voice in the 
Church rings in our ears. The business of the minister is to 



284: SERMONS. 

proclaim the words of Christ to hold up Christ, and that is 
only the true Christian Church where Christ is exhibited on 
the cross. How strong his language ! "And I, if I be lifted 
up, will draw all men unto me." The Church is not the place 
for philosophy, though philosophers may gather about the 
portals of the Church ; it is not the place for the discussion of 
science, though all true science is purified and enlightened 
through the teaching of Jesus. The province of the Church 
is above and beyond the province of philosophy ; its business 
is to exhibit a pure doctrine and a pure life. What a glorious 
fact it is that there is one life that can be held up before the 
eyes of mankind as a perfect pattern ! There were lips that 
never spake unkindness, that never uttered an untruth; there 
were eyes that never looked aught but love and purity ; there 
were arms that never closed against wretchedness or peni- 
tence; there was a bosom which never throbbed with sin, nor 
ever was excited by unholy impulse; there was a man free 
from all selfishness, and whose life was spent in doing good. 
There was One who loved all, and loved them more than him- 
self, and who gave himself to die that they might live ; there 
was One who went into the gates of death, that the gates of 
death might never hold us in ; there was One who lay in the 
grave to take away its damp, its chill, and its horror, and 
taught us how we might ascend from the tomb; there was 
One who, though he walked on earth, had his conversation in 
heaven, who took away the curtain that hid immortality from 
view and presented us the Father God in all his love. Such a 
One is the exemplar held up in the Church of Christ. It is 
a Church that rallies to the cross, and gathers about Jesus; 
and it is because he is attractive and lovely that men are com- 
ing from the ends of the earth to see the salvation of God. 
Now, what effect must such a character have on society ? 
Our children see and hear Christ, and, beholding his beauty, 
they go out to live in the world as he did. What a standard 
in business, in the family, and in all the conduct of life? 
They hear him say : " Whatsoever ye would that men should 
do unto you, even so do ye unto them." Childhood under- 
stands this word and listens, and it becomes a source of com- 



THE CHURCH A PLACE OF SAFETY AND OF PRAISE. 285 

fort in the family; husbands and wives understand it, and it 
cements affection ; the community understands it, and it regu- 
lates the relative duties of society; men of trade understand 
it, and no longer try to deceive or to injure each other. The 
great lesson dropped into the heart of humanity is that uni- 
versal happiness will flow only from trying to do right under 
all possible circumstances. Now, such a standard is required, 
for the world is pressing on men, and they everywhere need 
an example of purity and righteousness. The Church is a 
place of safety, for it holds up that standard before the eyes 
of mankind. 

Again, the Church is a place of safety, because it brings 
vividly to the view of man the retributions of the future. 
Men are not governed so much by the present as they are by 
the future, but the future with them, generally, is the near fut- 
ure. Christianity presents what I might term the far future 
in contrast. A man is not so much governed to-day by what 
he will have to-day — unless he be wholly given to the lower 
forms of passion — as by what shall be. Let me take an illus- 
tration. Look at fashion in all its forms. A lady arrays 
herself tastefully, not merely for her own gratification in the 
present moment, but the near future influences her. "How 
shall I appear? What estimate shall be formed of me?" It 
is not the immediate act in itself, but it is the opinion shortly 
to be had. Now, the same motive influences the young man 
in his conduct. He engages in this practice or that, not 
merely for the practice in itself, but for the effect it will have 
on public opinion. "What will men say of me?" He regu- 
lates his walk to satisfy public opinion. A man trades, not so 
much for the enjoyment of business to-day .as for what he will 
realize to-morrow. He purchases a piece of property, not be- 
cause he needs the property, but because, he says, "Next year 
it will be worth thousands of dollars more." He is living for 
the future. He trains his children, not because of the joy of 
educating them to-day, but because he thinks they will here- 
after be happy, useful, and honored members of society. All 
these motives are proper in themselves if not carried too far. 
It is right that we should regard the opinions of those about 



286 SERMONS. 

us ; it is right that we should provide things honest in the sight 
of all men ; it is right that we should consider what the effect 
of this or that training will be upon our children in years to 
come; but Christianity goes beyond all these. It asks, not 
only what will be the opinion of those near us to-day, but 
what will be the opinion of the pure and the holy — the opin- 
ion, not of men merely, but of God ; the effect, not merely one 
or ten years or half a century hence, but the effect to all eter- 
nity. And it is by this extended view that Christianity sheds 
its holy influence upon society. 

Now, the very same feeling that prompts the lady to array 
herself that she may be approved, will, if she takes in high 
and holy thoughts, lead her to arise in the clean robes of 
righteousness; she will put on the wedding garment that she 
may be loved of Christ; she will have a pure and meek spirit, 
which is of great price before him. The man of business, 
who works to-day that he may be richer to-morrow, is seek- 
ing future gain, and if he gains thousands they will soon 
be gone; but let him look into eternity, and the question 
will be, "Shall I gain heaven or hell?" These are questions 
which come before the conscience, and they are held up in 
the Church of God. While we sit in the Church two worlds 
are before us: heaven, with its glories beaming above us, and 
hell, with its awful fearfulness below us. Here we stand be- 
tween the two worlds, poised for a moment, heaven calling 
and smiling, hell yearning to engulf us, enemies around us, 
good and evil angels contending for us, Christ beckoning us 
forward, and our own bad passions drawing us down. 

Now, the future beckons us to the right ; the Church holds 
up that future, and its voice is against the voice of the world. 
And how needful is this ! 1 go out six days in the week, and 
the world is drawing me. Men are saying, "Make money; 
get office; be popular; be clever; have your friends; be 
happy, and enjoy yourself." The Christian Church says, 
" Yes, do all this, but not for to-day; be happy, but be happy 
forever; gain wealth, but gain it for eternity; lay it up, but 
not in investments that may fail; lay it up in heaven at the 
right hand of God, where no thieves can break through or 



THE CHURCH A PLACE OF SAFETY AND OF PRAISE. 287 

steal; lay it up where there is unchangeableness, arid the 
wealth shall always endure." It is thus that through the 
Church of God the future beams down upon us. Could the 
man who lives for the present see the future always, would 
he dare do wrong? would he dare defraud his neighbor, even 
to gain thousands of dollars thereby ? He must, before going 
to the future, disgorge his ill-gotten gain, and make retribu- 
tion, or forever lie down beneath the wrath of an avenging 
God. "What good does a dollar gained by w T rong do a man? 
It blasts his hopes, it destroys his soul. What shall a man 
give in exchange for his soul? and what shall it profit if he 
gain the whole world and lose his soul ? It is this influence 
of the outer world that is ruining us; it is this evil influence 
of society that is drawing us astray. We need light from 
heaven and voices beckoning from the future beyond to make 
us rise to the dignity of true men, to move like men who dare 
to be honest. 

The last point I notice is that the Church proposes to take 
society before evil habits are formed, and train the rising gen- 
eration in the way in which it should go. How different is 
the Church in this respect from everything else ! Heathen 
philosophers never addressed themselves to childhood. It was, 
in a measure, passed over — but the Christian Church alone 
throws its arms around the children. It takes them in the 
earliest infancy and presents them at the altar of God ; it 
typifies the cleansing influence of our holy religion and of 
God's Spirit by the sprinkled water. What songs it puts in 
childhood's lips ! what restraints it throws around childhood's 
pathway ! The aim of the Church is to fill the minds of chil- 
dren with elevated thoughts; and if their hearts are drawn 
into communion with God they will be safe from the temp- 
tations of the world. And it is this attitude of the Church 
towards childhood that makes it pre-eminently a place of safe- 
ty and its walls salvation. Where shall 1 leave my family 
when I am called away? When death shall cut me down, 
and I must part from my infant children, let me leave them in 
the Church of God. Let the Church teach them its songs ; 
let the minister point them to the cross ; let Jesus stand ex- 



288 SERMONS. 

hibited before their eves ; let them be drawn by bis loveli- 
ness, and though I die, m}' children are safe — they are within 
the walls of salvation. Oh ! the blessedness of the Church 
when it lays its arms around children ! The latter-day glory 
is being consummated in the Church rising to the conception 
of its duty to childhood even in tender years. I never go into 
the street and listen to the songs which children murmur in 
the evening hour but I think what a blessing is Christianity 
to them. Not only are the walls of the Church salvation in 
this sense, but its gates are praise. Its people are not only a 
saved, but a joyful people. 

And why are Christian people so joyful ? why is the Church 
a place of praise ? It is so, in the first place, because the in- 
telligence communicated in the Church is ever of a joyful 
character. I know that the law of God is stern, and there are 
men who say that the gospel we preach is severe, because we 
say, " O wicked man ! thou shalt surely die ; the wages of 
sin is death; knowing the terrors of the Lord, we persuade 
men." It becomes our duty to say that the man who will 
purposely live wrong must be miserable. There is no help 
for him ; he is miserable in this world, and he must be miser- 
able forever. You cannot alter this without changing the nat- 
ure of man and the nature of God. Why, a bad child is un- 
happy, and he must ever be so as long as God and right and 
truth remain the same. If a man will choose to live wicked- 
]} r , he chooses to make himself unhappy to all eternity, and 
there is no relief for him. And yet they tell us, because we 
say so, we preach a severe gospel. We preach only what you 
yourself say is right. The man who wants to be bad ought 
to be miserable ; the man w r ho tries to be good ought to be 
happy. You say that is right. It is the law of God written 
on the human soul. But while we preach all that, we have 
something more joyful to preach. The gospel sends us to 
proclaim that God is willing that every bad man shall become 
good ; that every unhappy man, by turning to do right, may 
become happy. What a joyful intelligence is this ! It is the 
gospel — God's intelligence to man — the proclamation that ev- 
ery man may be blessed, because every man may become a son 



THE CHURCH A PLACE OF SAFETY AND OF PKAISE. 289 

of God. It is a proclamation to the man who swears that if 
he ceases to swear, and loves God, God will forgive him the 
past ; if he has done wrong until his sins are like crimson, 
still he may be made white as snow. You have seen the 
story, I presume, of the man who had been gathering rem- 
nants for making paper, and who put them through a chemi- 
cal process b} 7 which all the colors and stains were removed, 
so that the paper would be white. After a long experience 
he stated that the hardest color to make white was crimson, 
the most difficult to be bleached by any possible chemical 
process was this one. And yet, though our sins are like 
crimson, the blood of Christ takes every stain away. I re- 
joice to preach such a gospel — to be able to say to every hu- 
man being, " There is forgiveness of sins." That is a blessed 
gospel ; it makes the minister happy in proclaiming it, for he 
feels it in his own heart. He says: "I was a sinner and I 
have been saved, blessed be the name of Christ!" The Spirit 
and the Bride say, come, and every converted heart says: " I 
was a sinner, and I am saved. My guilt was deep, but the 
blood of Christ washed it away." 

The Church is setting its seal to the word of the gospel that 
God is true ; and the man hears and lives. And this church 
is a joyful place to-day, because to the assembled hundreds 
here this morning I can proclaim, " There is forgiveness for 
all your sins that are past ; whatever wrong you have done, 
in whatever place, however many years ago, whether yester- 
day or this morning — whatever sins you have committed, they 
can be forgiven you, and there is free mercy from God to 
wash your stains away. Blessed be God ! I feel the Church 
this morning is the place of praise ; its walls are salvation. 
Fathers, mothers, husbands, you may be saved; wives, you 
may come to Christ ; little children, you may come to Jesus. 

Not only is the intelligence joyful, but the experience of 
the Church is a joyful experience. It is not merely said that 
a man may come to Christ. That would be a great thing. 
My brother, if I could know that though I might go with my 
head bowed down and my heart in anguish all ray days until 
just the last hour of my life, if I could be right sure that then 

19 



290 SERMONS. 

I should know my sins forgiven, and that God accepted 
me, and that, dying, I would go to heaven, that would be a 
great source of joy. There are many of you who would give 
all you are worth to-day for such knowledge. Would you not 
rather lose all you have on earth than lose .your .soul in the 
end ? Would you not give a large part of all you have if you 
could be perfectly sure this moment that, when you came to 
die, you would be ready and would go to the brighter and 
more blissful world? It would take a burden from your 
heart. If you are afraid that, when yon die, you will be lost, 
it makes you unhappy. I know your heart, because I know 
my own. I know the afflictions through which I have passed, 
the deep sadness of my own soul, the doubts which have 
wrung my spirit; but have you not said, as I have said in 
years past, many a time, I fear heaven is not for me ? Have 
you said it ? What would you give to know it is for you ? 
To know that we are the sons of God by faith in Jesus 
Christ is Christian experience, and it is the experience of the 
Church. It is a joyful experience to be able to say, " As far 
as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed my sins 
from me." Listen to the Church as it sings in its happy hour : 
" O Lord ! I will praise thee, for though thou wast angry 
with me, thine anger is turned away, and now thou comfort- 
est me." What joy does that afford? 

Have you felt it ? Do you know it? Then you know the 
joys of pardoned sin ; and you remember how the day passed 
sweetly over your head, 

"Made up of innocence and love." 

God was your song in the night, and in the morning peace 
and purity seemed to reign. It was the joy of God that came 
to your soul. Many Christians are in error in one thing. 
They let the young converts be happy, but they do not aim 
to be happy themselves all the time. The way to heaven is 
a getting higher every step; the air is purer the higher we 
rise ; the prospects brighter the more we ascend ; the nearer 
we are to the angels, the nearer to our final home. I do 
thank God there are many in the Church to-day nearer 
heaven than they were ten years ago ; but there may be others 



THE CHURCH A PLACE OF SAFETY AND OF PRAISE. 291 

who do not look so closely to Jesus, and do not think so much 
of the heavenly world. If they would look to Jesus and 
think of heaven — if they would listen till they could almost 
hear the rustling of the wings of the angels, they would be a 
happy, a joyful, a triumphant people. I thank God that the 
walls around us are not only salvation, but the gates are praise; 
and we are getting nearer the heavenly gates, and we will go 
through with triumphant song, while the angels sing: "Lift 
up your heads, ye everlasting doors, and let these redeemed 
souls pass through." 

There are other reasons I might give why the gates of the 
Church are praise. How the Church triumphs when sinners 
are converted to God ! and there is praise in the Church 
because the conquests of Christ are extending more and more. 
The joy of the Lord is our strength ; and w r e have strength as 
Christians because we are happy Christians. You and I are 
doing wrong to the world when we do not drink in the full 
spirit of joy that is in the Christian Church, because it is that 
spirit which gives us power. When we are happy in the love 
of God we are not afraid to speak to man. We talk to our 
families and to our associates in business of what God has 
done for our souls. When the fire burns in our hearts it 
kindles in the hearts of others ; and we are wronging the 
world when we are hot joyful in the love of God. A success- 
ful Church is always a rejoicing Church. I hear God speaking 
in his word to us: "Rejoice evermore; and again I say re- 
joice." There is enough to make us joyous. Jesus is our 
Saviour, God is our father, heaven is our home, mansions are 
prepared for us, crowns are burnished for us, and white robes 
are ready for us. Pure spirits are looking down upon us, 
sainted mothers and fathers who bore us in their arms are 
looking for us to come, and little children who dropped out 
of our arms are waiting for us. 

Oh, that God would open our eyes this morning, that we 
may see that our loved ones are waiting, that a great cloud of 
witnesses, the spirits of the just made perfect, are looking 
down upon us, telling us what they have gained ! God grant 
that these thoughts may inspire us ! 



XVII. 



»jrat tjjtttk \\t of CJjrist? 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 

"What think ye of Christ?"— Matt. xxii. 42. 

Coming this morning into a house erected for Christian 
worship this question, which has been sounding through the 
ages — which came from the lips of Christ himself, and was 
intended for all men — may not improperly claim our thoughts. 
The words were uttered when Jesus was about to finish his 
stay upon earth. He had travelled with his disciples through- 
out Judea and Galilee. The three years of his ministry were 
ending. He had come up to Jerusalem to suffer aud die. 
Having lodged at Bethany, he had entered the city, where the 
multitude had recognized him as the Messiah, and with hosan- 
nas of praise had said, " Blessed is he that cometh in the name 
of the Lord !" 

Yast numbers were here gathered from all parts of the 
Holy Land, and strangers who had come up to celebrate the 
Passover, for many Jews lived in distant countries. They 
were moved by the excitement of the people, and as the 
multitude clustered around the person of Christ, the Scribes 
and the Pharisees resolved, if possible, to perplex him by their 
questions; to involve him unpleasantly with the government 
by asking him whether they should pay tribute to Caesar; to 
involve him unpleasantly in some of their own controversies, 
by asking him questions upon doctrine. He answered them 
all with such wisdom that they were confounded, and then, 
turning to them, proposed a question — a question not foreign 
to their thoughts — one which was contained in their own cate- 
chism — " What think ye of Christ % whose son is he ?" They 
said, as they were taught to say, " The son of David." Then 
he presses the further question, "How then doth David in 
spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, 
Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy foot- 



296 SERMONS. 

stool. If David then call him Lord, how is he his son ?" They 
were unable to answer. " And from that day forth," it is said, 
" durst no man ask him any more questions." 

Now in these words I notice, first, that Christianity is a 
system of thought. It challenges thought. It does not come 
as a system of authority, commanding absolute, unthinking 
obedience, but, addressed to our minds, it calls into play all 
the faculties which God gives us. It appeals to us as reason- 
able men ; and it is said, in other parts of revelation, " Come, 
let us reason together." Man's highest attributes are ad- 
dressed. He is not brought under subjection as a beast of 
the field ; he is not coerced by the will of another. Christ ad- 
dresses himself to the better judgment of man ; and Chris- 
tianity is suited to awaken reflection in the bosom of every 
one. Unlike other systems which had commanded the people 
to worship they knew not what, even an unknown god ; un- 
like Mohammedanism, which appeals to force, to the power of 
the sword; unlike false systems of Christianity, which have 
been unwilling that men should think for themselves, and have 
persecuted them, Christ's religion addresses us as reasoning 
beings. It commands us to think; and in this respect it 
commends itself to the acceptance of men. It awakens at- 
tention. It sets the faculties God has given man into active 
play, and prepares him for his grandest discoveries, for all 
the works of art and taste with which society may be em- 
bellished. 

But not only is Christianity a system which dwells in the 
realm of ideas — whose home is eternity, whose theatre is the 
universe, whose object is human destiny — but it excites in all 
minds the highest class of thoughts. And this is one reason 
why it is so frequently overlooked among men. We are think- 
ing beings, but the duties near us call us to dwell upon ma- 
terial interests chiefly. "We are studying how w r e may gain a 
livelihood, how we may have enjoyment, how we may care 
for our families, how we may build our cities, how we may 
construct our governments, how we may advance arts, and how 
we may perfect our sciences. These are objects which force 
themselves upon the attention of man from day to day ; and 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 297 

because Christianity does not directly take hold of them, 
many of us thrust it aside; we wait for a more convenient 
opportunity ; we think we must settle, first, matters of trade ; 
discuss, first, questions of science, finance ; ascertain great prin- 
ciples of government. Because Christianity speaks to us of 
the kingdom of heaven, of our spiritual nature, of the world 
to which we are going, of our relations to the unseen, we put 
it away from us as something that has not just now a claim 
upon us. 

And, indeed, there are some who, because it directs us to the 
unseen and eternal, scarcely consider it to be worthy of their 
consideration. But we find this, that all through the sacred vol- 
ume revelation represents itself to be the great subject that man 
ought to study. For instance, take the expression, " The fear 
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Men desire to be 
wise. We wish to educate our children. We ourselves are 
desiring to learn. Many are anxious to climb to the pinnacle 
of fame. We forget oftentimes that the beginning of wisdom 
is the fear of the Lord. We do not discern the connection 
between our relations to God and the daily business of life. 
Again, our Saviour sa} 7 s, " Seek ye first the kingdom of God, 
and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto 
you." That is, " Seek not what ye shall eat, and what ye shall 
drink, and wherewithal ye shall be clothed." Let not the 
mind run merely upon the business of the day, on trade, on 
home, on the affairs of life. " Seek first the kingdom of God, 
and all these things shall be added unto you ;" declaring that 
the thoughts connected with revelation are ground thoughts, 
out of which spring other thoughts ; that if you wish to erect 
the structure of civilization the corner-stone must be Christ 
Jesus — the foundation, Christ and the apostles and prophets 
— and then the superstructure will rise, until the glorious 
dome shall top over all. 

But there be those who ask, How is it that thoughts spirit- 
ual and eternal, how is it that thoughts concerning Christ 
and his mission, thus do lie at the foundation ? They have 
nothing directly to do with earning our bread, regulating our 
stores, building our factories, extending our railroads, stretch- 



298 SERMONS. 

ing our telegraph wires, sending out our steamships. What 
has this knowledge of Christ and his person to do with the 
duties of life? I may answer, the invisible lies at the root 
of the visible, of all growth, of all power. We are just now 
in the spring-time of the year, and as you look at the trees 
they are beginning to bud; the tender leaf is coming out; 
the flower stalk that was buried for the winter shoots up; it 
spreads its branches. Why were not these signs of life seen 
a month ago ? It is the temperature of the air, the moisture 
of the earth, it is the unseen influence of electricity, of heat, 
that works upon all these, and nature responds. 

Now, when Christ reveals himself as the power that draws 
the human eye towards God, this power seems to us to have 
little to do with the business of life, and yet it inspires hon- 
esty and purity and rectitude and hopefulness. It joins man 
to the throne of God, and makes him feel that he is a son of 
God. He is an heir of immortality. He begins a being that 
is to run on parallel with the very being of God. He has a 
life here just budding, germinating; its flower and fruit are 
to be in a more glorious clime. Here we are children, we 
are pilgrims ; Ave travel our journey a few days, and drop 
into the grave, and the ground covers us ; but the morning 
of the resurrection comes, and in beauty and in glory we 
shall stand before the throne of God, higher than the angels 
of God, for they shall be our servants. And when thoughts 
like these occupy the mind, swell the emotions, elevate the 
being, man forgets, to some extent, the little spot of earth 
that he treads. When he considers what he shall be when 
he shall sit down with Christ on his throne, man has ob- 
jects of grandeur to pursue ; he lifts his eye from the things 
of earth to things unseen, and you find him no longer sav- 
age and uncivilized and selfish ; he curbs his passions, he 
rules his appetites, he is governed by reason ; his imagina- 
tion stretches into eternity, and gives him wings of faith 
by which he rises towards the unseen. "And he that hath 
this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he (Christ) is 
pure." So that it is not unreasonable that thought should 
alter the whole character of life, and that this primal thought, 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 299 

"What think ye of Christ?" should change the whole face 
of society. 

Now, to the Jew this question came with a little different 
meaning from that which it has for us. " What think ye of 
Christ?" said Jesus ; " whose son is he ?" The word "Christ," 
as understood by the Jew, signified the Messiah promised in 
the Old Testament Scriptures. It was the designation of 
office; it signified the Anointed One. Who was lie to be? 
The prophets had foretold that the seed of the woman should 
bruise the serpent's head. This great picture of prophecy 
was hung up before the world. There was to come one from 
the posterity of the woman who should conquer evil. Then, 
again, it w T as said that in Abraham should all the nations of 
the earth be blessed ; and to Isaac and to Jacob it was re- 
peated : "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be 
blessed." The dying Jacob saw the "Shiloh" coming when 
the sceptre was departing from Judah. The prophets beheld 
a great and glorious One, sometimes called a "Branch," some- 
times called a "Shepherd," sometimes a "Lamb," sometimes 
the " Lion of the Tribe of Judah." There was a great diver- 
sity of characters under which this coming Messiah was rep- 
resented, and I do not wonder that the Jews were embar- 
rassed, because God intended to picture him in all his differ- 
ent offices. To the Jew he was a mystery, and he would 
have been so to us. For instance, he was to be a victor and 
a ruler; he w T as to teach the people; of his government and 
kingdom there should be no end; he was to be "the Mighty 
God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." And yet 
he was " a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We 
hid as it were our faces from him. He is brought as a lamb 
to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, 
so he openeth not his mouth." 

How could these opposite characteristics belong to the 
same man ? It would seem to be almost impossible, and 
hence the Jew rested upon the idea that these expressions 
were purely figurative. He could scarcely apply them, but 
lie chose rather to think of a ruler, a conqueror, an earthly 
prince, coming like one of the old potentates who swept with 



300 SERMONS. 

such power over surrounding nations. The Jew expected one 
who was to make Judaism the great power of the world, who 
would choose Jerusalem for his capital, and from Jerusalem 
wield a sceptre that should command the very ends of the earth. 
He was to be the son of David, to sit on David's throne. The 
other idea, of his suffering for sin and making an atonement 
for sin, of his being a spiritual Saviour, was less clearly taken 
into their minds. But the question "What think ye of 
Christ 8" as directed to them, had all of this power of which 
I have spoken. If they were to learn what Christ w r as to 
be they must read the Old Testament Scriptures ; they must 
examine carefully the whole line of prophecy. Here was 
the appeal to thought ; here was the invitation to study ; 
here was a bringing up of human reason to the question 
of comparing the promises of God with their fulfilment. 
And no man could be a good Jew without being a good stu- 
dent. Plence they were taught to talk to their children ; to 
teach them by day and by night, at their rising up and at 
their sitting down ; and the law was to be written upon their 
frontlets, bound upon their garments, and to be their chief 
concern in their business and in their leisure. 

The question, as addressed to us, has a wider range. It is, 
What are the characteristics of the Messiah? Do these char- 
acteristics meet in Jesus of Nazareth? Is he the Christ 
promised in the Old Testament? The preaching of the 
apostles was intended to prove that Jesus was the Christ. 
They appealed to Moses and the prophets ; they reasoned 
out of the Scriptures. But, as I have said, to us a wider 
sphere is opened. We have the same prophecies, the same 
characteristics to examine, but we have now the accom- 
plished facts in the life of Jesus. We see hitn meeting all 
the requirements of prophecy; we see him displaying wis- 
dom, love, power, benevolence. And then we see not only 
Jesus himself, but we see the results of his mission, the ef- 
fects of his teaching, his example ; we see how society has 
been influenced, how the beautiful system which he estab- 
lished on earth has been gradually developed, and that to-day 
he is living and breathing and working through his. Church 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 301 

among the sons of men. And when we ask to-day, " "What 
think ye of Christ ?" the question to us is, Is Jesus of Naz- 
areth the divine Messiah? is he the man sent of God to save 
the world ? is he such a one that we can trust our all in his 
hand? Can we commit our children to his care? can we 
feel that society is safe under his teaching? are there hopes 
to come to us through his life, his teaching, and his resur- 
rection ? So that the subject has to us all the force of a per- 
sonal appeal. 

I do not propose this morning to enter largely into the 
scriptural argument. I do not purpose to prove how perfect- 
ly prophecy meets in the life of Christ. If I had time I 
would delight to develop this argument and to show how all 
the prophecies are fulfilled in Christ ; how he w T as born of a 
virgin, the seed of the woman ; how he came in the town 
predicted, in Bethlehem, at the precise time, foretold hun- 
dreds of years before, how his advent was a matter of inter- 
est to heaven, as w T ell as to earth ; and how all the prophecies 
met in him, as they have never been claimed to meet in 
any other being ; and thus that Jesus is the Christ of Old 
Testament prediction. But I purpose to-day to take a- wider 
range, and consider something that may connect itself more 
fully with what we see in the world around us. For, in the 
first place, if Christ be not divine, if he be not the Messiah, 
the Son of God, then his claim to be such was false. And if 
he could make a claim to be the Son of God when he was 
not ; if he accepted worship when no mere man ought to be 
worshipped ; if he allowed his disciples to call him divine 
when he was not, then he was an impostor; and, if an im- 
postor, then a wicked man ; and, if a wicked man, then no 
one ought to believe in him ; no one ought to praise him ; 
no one ought to rely on him. No one can grow better by 
relying upon a bad man, following a falsehood, believing what 
is untrue. If Christ was not God and an object of worship, 
then his willingness that men should worship him made him 
a participant in blasphemy; for it is blasphemy to worship 
any other than God. 

Now, then, we look back for eighteen hundred years to as- 



302 SERMONS. 

certain the fruits of Christ's coming. There might be sys- 
tems that would flourish for a day, and yet have in them the 
seeds of decay: there might be errors not exploded; it might 
require time. We stand and look through eighteen hundred 
years, and can trace to-day the results of believing and fol- 
lowing Christ, and see what is the influence of that faith — 
first, on the wwld. -We can now come to the man of busi- 
ness and brain, and can appeal to the ages and to their fruits, 
and say, "What think you of Christ?" Do the results show 
that believing in him does good to mankind ? does it improve 
society? does it purify character? or does it degrade, does it 
impoverish, does it sink our race? 

Now, first, notice this strange fact. Wherever Christ has 
been preached all other systems of worship have passed away. 
How can you account for it? At the time he appeared 
there was a beautiful system of worship in Greece. The 
Parthenon, one of the most splendid buildings man ever 
erected, crowned the Acropolis of Athens. There were 
statues of Jupiter and Yenus, and Juno and Minerva, and 
Diana, not only throughout Italy, but throughout the then 
civilized world. At the altars hundreds of sacrifices were 
offered. Men came to wash away sins. They implored these 
deities as protectors of their towns, their cities, their families. 
In almost every house there was an altar. Christ began to 
be preached, and under the preaching of Christ the whole 
system has passed away. To-day there is not a man in the 
world who worships Jupiter; there is not one who bows the 
knee to Juno or Minerva. The people might cry for two 
hours, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians !" but no man now 
bows the knee to Diana ; no man makes her images or sells 
her shrines. There is idolatry still in the world, but it is an 
idolatry of ignorance. Go into India and visit the temples, and 
take the idols there, and they are objects of terror and aver- 
sion. There are idols in Africa, but they are of rough stone 
or wood — images deformed and base. Every attribute of 
beauty is stripped from idolatry. All the worship of art has 
departed from heathen systems; and to-day the art of the 
world, the statuary of the world, the architecture of the 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 303 

world, gather about Christianity. The pictures in your 
homes are the Madonna and the Infant Child, or Faith and 
Hope and Charity. Mankind recognize these. No one 
wants the forms of heathenism ; but the pure, inspiring 
truths of Christianity have come to us, and how is it, I ask, 
that the thought of Christ has swept away all other thoughts 
if Christ be not divine? They have gone wherever Christ 
is preached. What think ye of him? Is he divine? If he 
were a man, how would talking about him banish idols, cleanse 
worship, throw down altars ? Ah, the lamb does not now 
bleed at the altar; there are not streams of gore; no human 
sacrifices are found. Jesus reigns, and men whisper his name 
over the earth, and wherever men whisper his name all other 
systems depart. 

But, again, not only do we find this effect wrought upon 
systems of worship, we find it wrought upon literature. 
Now, if Christ be a mere man, how can you account for it 
that his words should be startling the ends of the earth more 
than the words of Plato — one of the grandest thinkers the 
world ever saw — or of Socrates? How should the words of 
Christ, uttered to the multitude gathered about him by the 
sea, be ringing through the world and influencing men more 
than the words of Demosthenes? So far as oratory is con- 
cerned — I may say it with reverence and yet with truthful- 
ness — Demosthenes was a greater orator than ever was Jesus 
of Nazareth. The scholars read selections from his orations in 
the schools ; the few look into them ; but the words of Jesus 
— children are studying them, they are translated into all lan- 
guages, and men are poring over them. Thousands to-day 
are reading the teaching of Christ where one is studying the 
writings of Plato. How can you explain it? If he is a mere 
man, why are his words resounding through the world, and 
the words of sages forgotten ! " What think ye of Christ ?" 
His words are ringing out because he is God. He is the 
Saviour of sinners. As the result, wherever Christ's words 
go, letters go. Where, to-day, is the cultivated intellect of the 
world ? Trace it, and you trace the line where Christianity 
moves. Your school-houses, your academies, your seminaries, 



304 SERMONS. 

your books, your printing-presses — why is it they are found 
just where Christ is preached ? 

Oh, tell me, " What think ye of Christ ?" The thought of 
Christ is the inspiration of literature. There are unbelievers 
among us, and they sometimes assume a lofty importance, and 
try to look down upon Christians. These very unbelievers 
have any importance because they are the children of Chris- 
tian mothers. They learn the name of Christ in infancy, 
and grow under Christian civilization, wear Christian clothes, 
eat Christian food, breathe Christian air, read Christian books, 
travel Christian railroads, and get their thoughts by Chris- 
tian telegraphs. They are living on Christianity, growing 
by Christianity, and yet they try to deride Christianity. If 
Christianity be untrue, let these men go where the truth is, 
build up a civilization without Christ, and then try, if they 
can, to construct a society. 

Not only so, the comforts of our daily life, the very point I 
raised at the beginning, wonderfully come, strangely come, 
through the teaching of Christ. Go among savages, and 
how uncertain is their food! how precarious their liveli- 
hood ! what poor clothing they wear ! blankets, moccasins, 
feathers on their head — strange dress ! Go among Moham- 
medan nations; how poor, comparatively! and how little 
the comfort of their daily life ! Their houses compare not 
with ours ; their towns, their cities, compare not with ours ; 
their trade, their commerce, compare not with ours. Who 
send out the ships? who build the factories? who have every 
means of enjoyment? Christian nations. They sought first 
the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these 
things were added to them. Christian mother, the comfort 
of your home is due to the influence of Christianity ; and you 
are taking your little boy in your arms, and your little girl on 
your knee, and you have a husband and they a father to share 
with you in household comforts and joys, because Christ's 
words are ringing through the world. Sisters of mine and of 
Christ, you are in this house this morning because Christian- 
ity is preached. Outside of Christendom women come not 
to hear as you do, and to mingle in the great congregation. 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 305 

Degraded, abandoned, neglected, they are trampled upon. 
There is no such thing as home in our sense of the word 
except where Christ's words are known. And now, " What 
think ye of Christ ?" If you think of your homes, think of 
the Saviour who gives you the homes. If you think of your 
enjoyments, think of Christ, whose arms encircle you, and 
whose Spirit, breathing upon you, gives you all this sweet 
comfort and peace. Would you reject Christ ? You reject 
home and purity and comfort and elevation. 

But, again, is it not strange that wherever Christianity goes 
there go with it all the benevolent influences that give such 
grace to society ? Said Cain, " Am I my brother's keeper ?" It 
is the spirit of selfishness to neglect those about us ; the spirit 
of Christ to care for all about us. When Jesus would teach 
who is my neighbor, he tells the beautiful story of the man 
who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell 
among thieves, and was stripped and left naked ; a priest, 
seeing him, passed by on one side, as did also a Levite. But 
the despised Samaritan, between whom and the Jew there 
was perpetual hostility, when he saw the sufferer, did not 
say, " He is a Jew, an enemy of mine," but, " He is a man," 
and went and cared for him, and bound up his wounds, and 
took him to an inn, and paid for his lodging, and prom- 
ised to come and settle whatever the charges might be af- 
ter a while when he got well ; " And," said the Saviour, 
"was he not the neighbor to him that fell among thieves? 
Go thou and do likewise." Wherever there are sons or 
daughters of sorrow, cheer them. Wherever there is a dy- 
ing one, comfort him. Christianity is a system of benevo- 
lence and love. Christ's record is a record of pity. I am 
not astonished that the infidels of to-day, unlike the infidels 
of the last age, talk about the beauty of the character of 
Christ. They speak of his intellectual power and of his 
goodness, while they reject him as the Son of God. 

How he taught, labored, blessed ! If any were blind, he 
opened their eyes; if they were deaf, he unstopped their 
ears; if they were lame, he gave them power to walk; if 
they were lepers, he cleansed them ; if they were sick, he 

20 



306 SERMONS. 

healed them all ; if they were sad, his tears dropped and 
mingled with their tears. Yes, he cared even for the hun- 
ger of our bodies, and when the multitude stood exhausted, 
and the disciples said, "Send them away that they may buy 
bread," Jesus answered, " Make them sit down to eat." He 
had given them spiritual teaching ; he wanted to show them 
his brotherly spirit. We invite the friends we love to our 
tables. Jesus, though he had no house to live in, though 
he said, " The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air 
have nests, yet the Son of man hath not where to lay his 
head ;" yet w T hen he called the thousands about him, and 
they had sat entranced by his eloquence and the power of his 
teaching for days, he would set his table; and he set it not in 
a little room. Some of you have dining -halls, and can 
gather in masses and spread entertainment for them, and 
they rejoice. Jesus, poor as he was, was yet God over all. 
The mountain-side was his table, and the green earth was 
carpeted for sittings, and he seated the five thousand men, be- 
sides the women and children. He had but the five loaves 
and two small fishes, and the disciples replied to him, "What 
are they among so many ?" and yet Jesns bade all of them 
sit down ; and he took in his hand the little loaves and did 
break, and the fishes and divided, and said, "Peter, take 
this ;" " James, take that ;" " John, pass on that side." " An- 
drew, go out along this side." There I see them arranged 
on the mountain-slope, at the table of the Son of God ; and 
yet if I had been there and at the outer edge of the circle I 
think I should have said, " There is nothing for me; there is 
something for those just around him ; there is nothing for 
me." I think I see that poor widow away yonder on the 
edge. She has her little boy beside her, crying for bread, and 
she has none to give him. I hear her say, " Oh, if I were only 
close by him, I might get a crumb that w T ould satisfy the hun- 
ger of my suffering boy !" It was a little loaf, but the disci- 
ples came breaking, and went by this one and that, and kept 
breaking, and the multitude kept eating, and finally they 
reached the poor widow, and she took and gave to her boy, 
and he ate and was satisfied. And they all ate that feast at 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 307 

the table of the Son of God, and there were left, after all had 
eaten, twelve basketsfull ! The Son of God would not pass by 
one. And as he broke the bread among that vast multitude, 
and they ate and were satisfied, so he gives himself, the bread 
of life, for every human being. For the poorest of the poor, 
and the most sinful of the sinning, and the most destitute 
of the destitute, and the most depraved of the low, there is 
mercy and grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

That was the personal exhibition of his love. Christianity 
is an outgrowth of Christ himself. He says, " As the Father 
hath sent me, so also have I sent you." That is the Church. 
Christians are to go on Christ's mission, and all true Chris- 
tians, in spirit, are like Christ ; and just as Christ was anx- 
ious to do good, so is every lover of Christ ; and wide as was 
Christ's affection, so wide are our sympathies and affection for 
every human being. Just here let me say, some men tell us 
not to be anxious about the distant parts of the earth, but to 
care for home. I have this to say to you : If Christ had not 
been careful about every human being there had not been sal- 
vation for all. He died for you and me, and for the ends of 
the world, as much as for the people of Jerusalem ; and when 
we get the mind that was in Christ we can't help feeling for 
the ends of the earth. We must feel for all for whom Christ 
died, if we are like Christ ; and the Christianity that restricts 
itself, under any forms or circumstances, is not the true Chris- 
tianity ; it has not the likeness of Christ ; the image is not clear- 
ly stamped on the metal ; the superscription is not there. 
The Church of Christ, in its development, illustrates the life of 
Christ. Adam, as our federal head, our first parent, sinned. 
The consequences of his sin were not known by himself; the 
results of sin could not be seen by himself. Even though he 
lived nine hundred and thirty years, he could not see them 
all. Why, all the wars and all the persecution and all the 
bloodshed and all the misery that have come down through 
these six thousand years were a stream that issued from the 
fountain of the first sin ; and you can't see how exceedingly 
sinful sin is until you have given it a field for its full devel- 
opment. 



308 SERMONS. 

All the wickedness sprang out of that first sin. Jnst as 
wickedness develops itself in the lapse of ages, and you see 
the exceeding sinfulness of sin, so, Christ being our spiritual 
head, as Adam was the natural, out of his work is devel- 
oped the whole organism of his Church, which perpetuates 
his life. He lived for the ages, though he walked in Ju- 
dea simply three years as a teacher. His words were to 
sound through the world, and the world is to be filled with 
the spirit of Christ and the words of Christ, but the ages 
must develop these. Well, now, the Church is developing 
just after his measure. I sometimes dwell, in thought, on 
that beautiful prophecy given by Isaiah : " Unto us a Child 
is born, unto us a Son is given, . . . and his name shall be 
called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Ever- 
lasting Father, the Prince of Peace ; of the increase of his 
government and peace there shall be no end." Now, do 
you see the development? "A Child," "a Son" — some- 
thing Wonderful — on, until a reign of universal peace. It 
is the triumph not of Christ personally, merely, but of 
Christianity. It began ; it was like the little child in weak- 
ness. It grew ; it was like the promising son when he came 
to be an heir, and as he approached years of manhood he 
was wonderful, and attracted attention. Christ's miracles 
were wonderful. Christianity has been wonderful, as it is 
renewing the earth. The questions I have asked you are 
wonderful in their character. What wonderful works Jesus 
did! but not only "Wonderful" and " Counsellor," he is 
the " Mighty God." Christianity is to-day the ruling power 
of earth. Not that the Church wants power, but Christian 
people gain the power. A handful of Christianized men are 
not afraid of hosts in China or Japan or India! You have 
had it, in history, repeated over and over again. Then there 
are the exhibitions of power — power as applied. Where was 
discovered the power of steam — its application — but in a 
Christian land? Where were found the powers of the sun- 
beam, and their application in photography and in drawing? 
And then Christianity was the "everlasting father." By 
that I understand the father never ceasing to be piteous ; 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 309 

always a father; not driving away his children, not hard- 
hearted, but sympathetic; and the Christian. Church is that 
everlasting father that cares for the poor, is building asy- 
lums for the blind and deaf and insane and imbecile, hospi- 
tals for every form of sickness, for the outcast and unfortunate. 
There is sympathy in the Christian bosom. Christianity is 
like an everlasting father, laying its arms everywhere. Oh, 
I think we are to-day in the age of the everlasting father. 
We have passed the childhood and the sonship of Christian- 
ity — the age when it astonished by its miracle and wonders, 
when it simply stirred the intellectual power of the world. 
We have reached the point where it has laid its hands on the 
powers of the earth, and now it is opening its heart of sympa- 
thy, and taking in the lowest of the low — all forms of suffer- 
ing and misfortune — and the next age that shall be developed 
is that of " the Prince of Peace." I see the era coming. I 
see it in the proposals to arbitrate and in the efforts to avoid 
war. The age is coming when out of the heart of the Ever- 
lasting Father shall be developed the reign of the Prince of 
Peace. Christ is to reign King of kings and Lord of lords ; 
and as he reigns "the sword shall be beaten into the plough- 
share and the spear into the priming-hook, and men shall learn 
war no more." And, when that age comes, of his dominion 
there shall be no end. He shall reign until the universe shall 
crown him Lord of all. 

" What think ye of Christ," this Christ who came as the lit- 
tle babe, poor, weak, in his mother's arms, and yet to-day is 
stepping over mountain-tops in the magnitude of his power ! 
I see him coming from Edom, with dyed garments from Boz- 
rah, travelling in the greatness of his strength, and hear him 
cry out, " I that come in righteousness, am mighty to save " 
— not mighty to destroy, thank God ! not mighty to humble, 
but mighty to save. He comes ! he takes the little infant by 
the hand and clasps it to his bosom; he takes the suffering 
widow and gently wipes away her tears; he goes to the 
bedside of the dying saint and whispers of his own glory 
in heaven. " What think ye of Christ ?" Will you have 
him in your houses, your homes, your hearts? Will you 



310 SERMONS. 

take him for your Saviour, Prince, and Ruler now and for- 
ever ? 

What men may think of Christ I know not ; I know not 
what all of you think of Christ to-day ; but I know this : the 
angels think of him as the Son of God and the Heir of Glory. 
The angels accompanied him when they were permitted to 
draw aside the curtain of heaven, and the choir of glory got 
down where their songs could be sung on earth. They sung 
of a coming Jesus — " Glory to God in the highest, and on 
earth peace, good-will toward men." They saw the object of 
Messiah's coming, and made not only the heavens, but the 
very earth, for the time, ring with angelic joy. The angels 
crowded around him when they saw him in agony in Geth- 
semane, and would then have helped him ; they thronged 
about him at the cross, but were not permitted to interfere; 
but when he had lain three days in the grave, when the third 
morning was coming, then they came from heaven again, and 
rolled away the stone ; they placed the napkin and clothes at 
one end and the other of the sepulchre, and then when Mary 
came weeping they said, " He is not here." They told of his 
resurrection — the first notes of joy — and men, taking up these 
notes, have been repeating them through the earth. 

The disciples said, "He is risen indeed, and appeared unto 
Peter;" and oh, that song I We have been singing it. The 
Easter is just gone by, that we have kept in memory of the 
resurrection of our Master. Earth and heaven have been 
singing, " Jesus has gone up on high." Yes, and when the 
angels saw him ascend from Mount Olivet, they came down 
to meet him and welcome him as he went up into glory, and 
said, as the disciples gazed heavenward, " This Jesus, which 
is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like 
manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." And when 
he went up did not the Psalmist hear the shout, "Lift up 
your heads, ye everlasting gates ! ye everlasting doors give 
way, and the King of Glory shall come in !" The angels 
took him — the Creator of all, the mighty God, the Everlast- 
ing Father — and God himself says of him, " This is my be- 
loved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." He 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 311 

bath said, " I will give him the heathen for his inheritance, 
and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession," and 
" he shall reign until all enemies shall be put under his feet." 
I know what the angels think of Jesus, what God the Father 
thinks of Jesus, what the dead thought of him when they that 
were in the graves heard the voice of the Son of God ; I know 
what some of our dear friends think of him this morning, 
some who preached him and some who believed in him, and 
have gone up to heaven, who have been redeemed and washed 
and purified, and are now singing, "Unto him that loved us 
and washed us in his own blood and hath make us kings and 
priests unto God, unto him be glory and power and dominion 
forever and ever." 

And now what do you think of him ? Some of your moth- 
ers clasped the cross with their dying arms, and went home 
triumphantly to the promised land ; and you, their sons — 
what are you doing? Where are you lingering? Now and 
then you cast a look towards the cross, then you turn to the 
earth ; now you hear a voice, and then shrink away ; now you 
see the right, and then you turn from the right ; now heaven 
calls, and you partly obey, and then you fall to earth again, 
and you drink in sin. O ye men of position, what think ye 
of Christ this morning? Is he not worthy your homage, 
your hearts, your lives ? This morning resolve to give your- 
selves to God. Young man, in the prime of your life, what 
think you of Christ ? If you will take him he will be your 
sun, your shield, will keep you from sin; will be in you a 
power to subdue appetite, and lead you in the highway of 
purity. I would I could address each of you this morning, 
What think ye of Christ ? Why do you not love him ? Why 
do you not serve him ? Think of him ; take him as your Sav- 
iour, your Saviour, to blot out your sins. I preach him to 
you this morning as a Saviour from sin ; and I tell every one 
of you, with the fullest conviction of my judgment, and all 
the sympathies of my heart, Christ will wash your sins away. 
He says, " I am he that blotteth out your transgressions for 
mine own sake." He wants to save you ; he longs to save 
you ; he loves you with an everlasting love ; he has been woo- 



312 SERMONS. 

ing you, calling for you, following yon, inviting yon, beckon- 
ing to yon, pleading with yon, entreating you to come to him 
all along the journey of life. Why will you stay away ? why 
fly from such a Saviour? 

I delight to think that Christ is to reign ; that Christ will 
reign ; that the earth shall be conquered by him ; that all na- 
tions shall own him ; that by and by he will conquer death 
itself, and the whole world shall be changed by the bright- 
ness of his coming. There is a time when you shall see Christ 
as he is; shall stand before him; "for every eye shall see 
him," even " those who pierced him." I have buried, as have 
some of you, a son, and a mother, and a father, but the dear 
ones taken from our arms, we have laid them in the grave, 
and they are sleeping in our cemeteries here and there. Ah, 
they shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and shall come 
forth. We shall be there, not as we are here to-day, scattered. 
How many ties join you to the other world, and you, and 
you. The circle to which 3^011 belong is, a large part of it, 
this morning, in the spirit land. Some of yon live almost 
alone now, but you will not be alone then. All shall come. 
They shall hear Christ's voice ; they shall think of him then 
as the Lion of the tribe of Judah ; they shall think of him 
then as the One who puts his heel on the head of the serpent. 
He shall be our Deliverer, our Resurrection, and our Life. 
And then, through all eternity, we shall be like him. 

I can ask no more. My children, saved through the blood 
of Jesus, shall be like him. My friends in Christ from whom 
I part in their weakness and sorrow, they shall be like him ; 
and I, myself, saved as by fire, from corruption and from er- 
rors, and from infirmities — I too, even I, shall be like him. It 
is all I desire. O Jesus ! I think of thee as my Saviour, and 
thou wilt be my resurrection and everlasting life. And oh, 
that all this congregation may think of thee as their portion, 
their everlasting all ! 



XVIII. 

(info's Ungti nu tfi? totlj. 



GOD'S REIGN OYER THE EARTH * 

"The Lord reignetli; let the earth rejoice ; let the multitude of isles be 
glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness 
and judgment are the habitation of his throne." — Ps. xcvii. 1, 2. 

The history of this world presents us progress and retrogres- 
sion. Its scenery is mingled light and shade. Though God 
sitteth on the circle of the heavens, yet he works his will in a 
manner very mysterious to finite beings. Not only is man 
incompetent to scan the infinite mind and to comprehend the 
various parts in the plan of Jehovah, but angels themselves are 
represented as being lost in wonder. They are described as bow- 
ing to behold the workings of his majesty and of his power, and 
searching with the prophets what were to be the various scenes 
that should be unfolded. The psalmist knew the history of 
the people of God in ancient days ; he had witnessed both the 
advance of the Jewish kingdom and its darker seasons. He 
had himself experienced great vicissitudes of fortune; from 
sitting upon a throne and receiving the homage of his people, 
he had been driven out as an exile, and the curses of the mul- 
titude had followed him. He had seen Israel fleeing before 
their enemies ; the ark of God had been taken ; the princes 
had fallen ; the daughters of Jerusalem had sung their lamen- 
tations, and a dense cloud of terror encompassed the nation. 
Again lie had beheld the rays of light shining outward, and 
God's footsteps, as upon the tops of the billows, as he passed 
onward to accomplish his purposes ; and, in viewing the move- 
ments of Providence, he cries out, "The Lord reigneth." 
Whatever may be outward appearances, whatever may be the 
signs of the times, whether Israel succeeds or falls from her 

* Preached in 1861, on the breaking-out of the Civil War. 



316 SERMONS. 

high position, still Jehovah reigns, and, under all circum- 
stances, "let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be 
glad thereof." In his time he had seen, as we have already 
intimated, that the progress of his kingdom was impeded by 
Jehovah. As with the psalmist, so with the people of God in 
all ages. We do not see the wheels of Providence roll steadily 
forward ; we do not see God accomplishing the results which 
we might desire; we do not see how certain events may 
operate for the benefit of the race. The Church may be de- 
pressed, the people of God may suffer, the dearest interests of 
Christianity may be placed in jeopardy, and hence man is re- 
quired to look beyond secondary causes, and seize hold of the 
great truth, "The Lord reigneth." 

We purpose, in a few reflections on this subject, to note the 
fact that " The Lord reigneth," and some of the reasons de- 
duced therefrom why the earth should rejoice. We all admit, 
in theory — that is, all Christian people admit — that "the Lord 
reigneth." That admission is very frequently accompanied 
with doubt, with uncertainty. How extensively does he reign ? 
how far does he overrule and guide all events % What is to 
be the result of great movements that may be in progress 
either in the world or in the Church ? And though we may 
say with our lips that God reigneth, we frequently doubt 
whether his plans are really for the elevation of our race. It 
may, then, be profitable to dwell a few moments on suggestions 
connected with this great fact. 

And, first, I may say, if we were merely to reason on this 
subject, we should enter into the spirit of the psalmist, and 
say, " The Lord reigneth ;" for the first thought which was in 
the psalmist's mind was that Jehovah, as distinguished from 
all the gods of the nations, is the Governor of the universe ; 
for in this same psalm he says, " Confounded be all they that 
serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols : worship 
him, all ye gods." It was a declaration that the God of Israel, 
the God of the Church, the God of Eevelation, was he who 
sitteth upon the circle of the heavens. This idea, when occu- 
pying our minds, is simply the unity of God as acknowledged 
in all Christian lands. The power of idols has been broken ; 



GOD'S REIGN OVER THE EARTH. 317 

men no longer worship, where the rays of civilization have 
shined, a plurality of divinities. Not only does the voice of 
revelation say that there is one God supreme, but the voice of 
science, the outspeaking of the universe, leads to the same 
conclusion. If we listen, first, for the voice of nature, me- 
thinks it echoes in our ears, "The Lord reigneth." For, in 
the first place, as we examine the various parts of this crea- 
tion, we find that they are not heterogeneous masses, having 
no similarity and no sympathy, but they are evidently the 
product of one designing mind, of one forming hand. "We 
may take the contents of the earth, the materials of all the 
strata of rocks, and though we may make our excavations in 
Asia, America, Europe, or Africa, we shall find the same gen- 
eral order of superposition, the same materials, the same con- 
formation, the union of the particles under the same laws — 
evincing that the mind that planted the western hemisphere 
must have laid the foundations of the eastern. Nay, if we 
go farther and examine the islands of the sea, the most 
remote from the continents, they are not unlike the rest of 
our globe. The same laws pervade them that govern the 
mineral, the vegetable, and the animal kingdoms, showing 
that not only the earth rejoices in the sovereignty of the one 
God, but that the disparted island far off in the distant ocean, 
the black rock that raises its head thousands of miles from 
the mainland, has been formed and is governed by the same 
hand which made the populous portions of the earth. Not 
only is this so in the outlines, but it is so when we come to 
examine all the minuter arrangements. Thus, while rocks 
may seem, to the careless observer, to be joined together with- 
out order, while we may note that different substances may 
unite, we know not how, yet when we test them we discover 
that all over the earth these particles of matter only combine 
with each other under one certain law. In all climates, in all 
seasons, under all circumstances, one law directs the minutest 
atoms of matter in their union with each other, showing that 
a designing mind not only formed them, but penetrated their 
very substance. There is not a single particle hid in the bo- 
som of the rock, or lying on the sand of the sea, or swimming 



318 SERMONS. 

in the midst of the ocean, but obeys the uniform law which 
the Creator lias stamped upon it. !Not only is this the case, 
but if we extend our range of thought we find, so far as we 
can discover, that God has graciously been pleased to show 
us a large part of his universe. It may be but a very small 
part compared with the whole, and yet, for the purpose of 
giving us an impression of his majesty, of his power, and of 
his supremacy, what has he not revealed to us? Around one 
common centre he has caused the rays of light to flow thou- 
sands of millions of miles, and to fall upon our eyes, that we 
may know that there are other globes, that we may feel that 
the hand which governs us has such power that it holds in its 
compass all worlds in the whole infinity of space. And then, 
so far as we have been able to find, and as science can enlight- 
en us, all these worlds obey one law : they are bodies of differ- 
ent magnitude, they move at different velocities, they have 
different objects, no doubt, to perform in the universe of God, 
and yet one power of attraction binds them all. So that when 
we have passed through the domains of the universe we re- 
turn back with this impression made upon the mind, " The 
Lord reigneth — the same God that made this world hath 
made all worlds." 

Again, not only does nature testify to the magnitude of 
God's works and the vastness of his power, but also to the 
minute supervision which he exercises over the particles of 
matter. You may take the wing of the smallest insect, which 
has breath for but a day, and that wing, when inspected under 
the microscope, shows a wonderful network of filaments, of 
vessels and cords, arrangements to fit it for the purpose for 
which God designed it. You may turn to the dust upon the 
leaf of the flower, and you shall find in that dust almost a 
forest, with its foliage. God hath a world beneath the face 
of this world to show man that all things visible are under his 
inspection, that he goes behind the curtain, and that it is as 
easy for the omniscient eye to behold what is not visible to 
the eye of man as to behold the movements of worlds in space. 
So that into whatever department of nature we search we shall 
find the government of a desisninar mind. But it is said all 



GOD'S REIGN OVER THE EARTH. 319 

these things are merely the operations of law. The infidel 
world is fond of speaking of law. But, I pray you, what is 
law % It hath no causality ; there is no causation in the uni- 
verse but mind. Matter is inert. There may be mechanical 
means, there may be agencies, but there is nothing that can 
move but mind — that only has moving power. It is the will 
of a living being that alone sets other things in motion; and 
only God himself, the Great Mind, hath power to set in mo- 
tion created minds, and through their causality to operate all 
events and all succession. Law is but the expression of this 
order. Kay, there is more than this, the very idea of law 
comes to the mind through a succession of prodigies that look 
like miracles. The idea of law can never otherwise be at- 
tained. For instance, consider magnetism. I take the polished 
piece of steel that has been rendered magnetic, and I bring it 
near the iron ; it leaps up, counteracting the power of grav- 
ity, and attaches itself to the magnetic substance. If that 
were the only piece of steel in the world which had such power, 
it would be a prodigy, and the man holding it in his hand 
would seem to work a miracle. It would be a wonder among 
all scientific men ; and yet when the prodigy is multiplied, so 
that it occurs every day of our lives and in every part of the 
world, we simply say it is a law. Suppose there were no veg- 
etation in this world, that angels and men had never beheld 
a flower, or a shrub, or a tree on the face of this earth, that 
there should spring up a plain, and the earth, the air, and the 
water should be converted into the trunk of a tree, and it 
should be covered with leaves, and flowers should hang upon 
its branches, and ripe fruit should succeed the flowers : the 
very angels would look down in astonishment and say : " What 
a miracle ! what a prodigy ! earth, air, light, and moisture, 
converted into a tree and flowers and fruit. It is a prodigy, 
it is a miracle !" And yet, when every hillside is covered 
with trees, and every garden blooms with flowers, and every 
orchard is laden with fruit, we simply say, " it is a law of nat- 
ure," and God in his majesty is banished from the universe. 
I need proceed no further with illustrations of this point. 
I think it will be manifest to every one that the very idea 



320 SERMONS. 

of law comes into the mind from a succession of prodigies ; 
it is God working by one uniform rule ; and whenever we 
see motion and power, though we may trace secondary agen- 
cies, we must still go back to God. So that if we pursue a 
train of thought of this character we come back again to the 
first point, and say : " The Lord reigneth." 

But God hath designed especially that his government 
should be manifest in this world ; and when we trace the prog- 
ress of empire, the rise and fall of dynasties, we shall see 
that God is in history. Strange indeed is the succession of 
events which God has permitted ; and yet we may, in looking 
to the distant past, see how he has been working out some 
of the plans of his providence. There was Egypt, early in 
its glory, and there was Chaldea, the queen of nations ; both 
of them centres of power, with the wealth of the world gath- 
ered about them. Why were these nations greater than oth- 
ers ? Because they were placed midway as lights for the na- 
tion to be known as the people of God. Israel was to be 
placed where she could lay her hands upon the wealth, the 
science, the literature, and wisdom of this world for the pur- 
pose of giving to mankind the knowledge of God. But when 
the Jewish people performed their office in that the family 
of Christ came from Abraham according to the flesh, there 
was no need for the glory of Egypt and Chaldea, and in sea- 
son they passed away — there is a desert land where they once 
flourished, a land of pools and of rushes. We see in the prog- 
ress of empire how God connected the nations with the de- 
velopment of the plans of his providence. I shall not attempt 
to trace the progress of our own race from the Anglo-Saxons 
holding a corner of Denmark on a coast of the North Sea, 
their going over to England, England's rule, the discovery of 
these colonies, the strange events that led the explorers to 
this particular land, and the way God raised us up to be a 
mighty people. The story is familiar to you ; and yet you 
can trace in every stage of it the hand of a ruling God. 

But what is true of nations — that God reigns among 
them — is especially seen in the connection of those nations 
with the Church. I have mentioned already the ancient Is- 



GOD'S REIGN OVER THE EARTH. 321 

raelites, and remarked that in their history God has shown us 
that he is pleased occasionally to take all the glory into his 
own hand, and from the darkest conjuncture of circumstances 
to bring out the most splendid results. Abraham was called 
to leave his home. Behold him as lie goes over the hills of 
Galilee, as he makes his way past the summit of Bethlehem, 
as he is driven by a famine towards Egypt, and sojourning in 
the country where he was to be the father of the faithful and 
his seed were to possess the land. Yet four hundred and 
thirty years passed away and his seed were in degradation and 
bondage. ISTo foot of Canaan is inherited by them except the 
cave where Abraham buried Sarah. and where his sons are 
buried. Though four centuries have passed away, God has 
not forgotten his promise. He still reigns ; he has been pre- 
paring the way for the people, schooling them in adversity, 
and making them know his power, and to give them faith in 
himself he guides them through a succession of miracles. An 
opening sea, a heaven raining bread, rocks gushing water, 
walls falling at the shout of the people praising God, clothe 
the invading host with terror, and God leads them and grants 
them their victory. And, in a subsequent era, when one hun- 
dred and eighty thousand men were about Samaria the breath 
of God came upon that army and they were as dead men. On 
another occasion a sudden fear seized them and they fled, leav- 
ing their provisions and munitions and tents as spoil to the 
Israelites. God showed his power to reign over the elements 
and his power to reign over the hearts of the people. His 
supremacy both over matter and mind was fully vindicated. 
And then see the connection of the Jewish people with Greece 
and with the Roman power — how they were placed to be a 
light to the nations of the earth ; and then trace the progress 
of the Christian Church. God had said the gates of hell should 
not prevail against it ; and yet by a few men without swords, 
without purses, without literature, as compared with the phi- 
losophers, God established his Church. 

Persecution comes, the Boman emperors issue edicts, the 
Boman people are excited, and say, " Christianity shall be de- 
stroyed ;" and just as a Boman emperor declares that Chris- 

21 



322 SERMONS. 

tianity shall perish, behold the cross takes the place of the 
eagle, and Constantine comes up from the bosom of the peo- 
ple, and makes it his standard. Go over the ages when the 
Northern barbarians came down upon Rome ; trace the whole 
progress of their history, and see how God sent his truth 
among these tribes, and prepared a race of men who should 
conquer this world for his name. The blood of martyrs has 
been shed, the hopes of the Church have been sometimes al- 
most extinguished, and yet by what strange means, in what a 
strange manner, has God overruled ? Did Mary issue edicts 
of blood, and did martyrs die ? Was Cranmer burned at the 
stake ? How soon was the queen swept from the head of the 
kingdom, and a successor put in her place, who ended this 
persecution of God's saints % See how all these providences 
say : " God reigneth " and guardeth his Church. The Church 
is as dear to him as the apple of his eye. A woman may for- 
get her child, but God will never forget Jerusalem. Such is 
an outline of the voice of nature in her inert masses, and of 
history, sacred and profane, testifying to the watch-care of 
God in his government of the world. 

But why should this thought be a cause of joy 1 I answer, 
first, because the purposes of God are all in harmony with the 
happiness of man. I do not say that all the purposes of God 
are the happiness of man. He may have purposes reaching 
far beyond us. I fancy he has. There are other races, there 
are other worlds, there may be multiplied beings — how many 
and where I know not — but how many soever there may be, 
all God's purposes are in harmony with the happiness of hu- 
manity. And this is seen from the declaration of his Word as 
well as from the indications of his providence from age to 
age. Why was this world made as the theatre of man's ac- 
tion ? why did God reveal his Word through prophets and 
apostles % Why did angels form a part in the purposes of 
God, singing out in our ears that the advent of Christ was to 
be peace on earth and good-will towards men ? Hath not God 
declared in his Word, " The end of the commandment is char- 
ity "? That is the whole design of God's revelation. All its 
outgoings towards man have been designed to produce uni- 



GOD'S REIGN OVER THE EARTH. 323 

versal good-will, to fill the hearts of men with the love of God, 
and with love to each other, to banish strife, discord, jealousy, 
hatred, and war from the face of this earth. But not only so. 
Hath he not evinced this purpose in what he hath done for 
us? Hath he not given to man the title-deeds of this uni- 
verse, at least that part of it accessible to him ? did he not 
make man to rule this earth? did he not say that his power 
should be over every beast of the field? did he not bring ev- 
ery living thing to Adam to be named ? He gave him a mind 
capable of exploring earth's mysteries, of reading its elements, 
of understanding its characteristics. He gave him the domin- 
ion over it ; and it has been a shame to man that for six thou- 
sand years, forgetting his high destiny, he has been groping 
for the yellow dust beneath his feet and for pleasure and 
temporary joy. He has not yet subjected this earth to his own 
powers. 

There is not a current of air that can drive the sails of the 
ships on the seas of this globe but God hath made it possible 
for man to understand its laws. There is not an element 
which man may use to promote his happiness that has not 
been placed in the mountain, in the sands of the sea, or in the 
mines of the deep by the hand of God and bestowed on him 
as a treasure. There is not a visible combination of elements 
which may minister to man's happiness but God gave it him 
at the very beginning. How slow has man been to discover 
this, because a film has blinded his eyes and sin has bowed 
down his heart. He lias been in rebellion against God. We 
talk of modern discoveries ; as Christianity progresses and as 
the hearts of the people are filled with the love of God, man 
is becoming a discoverer. Yet how little does he know and 
how slow to learn ! Was the sea any different when God 
gave the ocean its bounds? -Were there not iron and silver 
placed in the earth when Adam was created ? Yet it is only 
yesterday that we could take the impressions of the light 
and carry it in its varied visions of beauty and of glory from 
home to home and from land to land ; yet God prepared all 
this for us when he laid the foundations of the world. We 
talk of the discovery of the properties of steam ; and yet God 



3M SERMONS. 

caused its ebullition from the day when he first created fire 
to come in contact with water. Its power was precisely the 
same as now, yet it is only lately that man would raise his eye 
to look at the works of God and apply it to turn his machin- 
ery, send his ship, drive his car, and bind this earth together, 
that all men might feel that one great brotherhood dwells 
upon its face. Man is but waking up to his destiny. He hath 
lifted the veil but a little; we know in part, w T e teach in part, 
we see in part. 

God has not only given us these evidences of his purpose, 
but there are others yet unknown. He hath enabled us now 
to talk to distant lands and to have the news of the earth 
gathered for us at our waking hour. And what he may yet 
do I know not. But God hath made this earth for man, all 
its appliances, all its lands, all its wealth, all its glory. And 
not only so, but, raising the eye upward to the stars in heaven, 
to the higher worlds above us, God hath sent back the mes- 
sage to us : " All are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ 
is God's." So that there is not an element of earth but I am 
part owner of it. There is not a star in heaven but part of 
it is mine; there is not a region of this universe but God 
hath given a portion of it to me. Though I may not have 
my portion here, though in the fall of my first parents I lost 
something of beauty and glory and happiness, yet I thank God 
that through the mediation of Jesus Christ, the second Adam, 
I shall have a nature by which I may be a possessor of all 
worlds ; though for a few seasons I may not have it here, I 
shall have a being through eternity which cannot be bounded 
by mountains or seas or earth, but whose only limits shall be 
the handiwork of God. Now I see in this an indication that 
God has peculiar affection for man, and that man's highest 
improvement is an object of God's especial care. To many 
of the agencies which shall work for this, God has given his 
special blessing, yet, as I have said before, in the midst of all 
the movements of God there will be occasional scenes of con- 
fusion and of disorder. The world goes forward for a season, 
and then it goes back ; a ray of light falls upon it from the 
throne of God, and then a cloud overshadows it. There is an 



GOD'S REIGN OVER THE EARTH. 325 

occasional advancement to glory, and then an oscillation tow- 
ards perdition. Such seem to us the movements of things 
here \ and yet, if we could see as God sees, we would discover 
that all things were working together for good to them that 
love him. To him there is no shade ; to our view clouds and 
darkness sometimes encompass him. Still, in the midst of all 
that darkness, righteousness and judgment are the habitation 
of his throne. 

And now for a word or two practically. First, may we 
not ourselves derive great comfort in our personal history 
from dwelling on the fact that God reigneth and that he is 
making all things work together for our good ? I know not 
your experience, I am not acquainted with the secrets of your 
hearts; but if your heart is like mine, you have had occa- 
sional waves of sorrow flowing over it. You have had sea- 
sons of perplexity ; sometimes a gloom has environed you that 
might be felt, and you have been almost ready to say with 
one of old, whom the psalmist styles a fool, that there is no 
God. Sometimes it seems to you as if you are forsaken, as 
if you are almost cast away. Why is it that in your domes- 
tic circumstances, in your business interests, in your health, 
you are called upon to suffer? Why do friends misunder- 
stand you and forsake you ? why do enemies gather strongly 
against you? why are reproaches suffered to be taken up 
against you ? Like the old patriarch Jacob, when his sons re- 
turned from Egypt and told him how one was left behind, 
he said : " All these things are against me." The old man 
felt he must die. Joseph was gone, Simeon was in prison, 
Benjamin must go, his family must be broken up, famine 
threatened him ; these things were all against him ; and yet, 
God was preparing at that very moment carriages and horse- 
men to take him from the famine of Canaan to the abun- 
dance of Egypt, and to give his sons the land of Goshen to 
keep them and their seed alive. 

We cannot comprehend these dark seasons, but if we look 
beyond the shadows and simply settle it in our minds, " God 
reigns, God loves me, all things shall work for my good ; 
then let misfortunes come, let the winds of adversity blow, 



/ 



326 SERMONS. 

we shall draw about us the mantle of God's love. Let the 
heavens be covered with darkness, they cannot shut out the 
light of the star of Bethlehem ; let the world take up a re- 
proach against me, it cannot separate me from him who hath 
said : ' Lo ! I am with you alway.' Let sickness bow this 
frame, let the grave begin to open its mouth to receive my 
perishing body, yet I can look fearlessly at death and can tri- 
umph over the grave. I can say : ' O death, where is thy 
sting? O grave, where is thy victory?' I raise my eyes to 
heaven and cry out: ' Thanks be unto God who hath given 
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.' " 

But, again, not only in our own personal relations in life is 
this doctrine one of great comfort; it should be so in the 
midst of strong discouragements and of great convulsions. 
Whatever may happen to the Church of Christ, it is enough 
for us to know that the Lord reigneth ; he hath sworn that 
Israel shall stand ; that Mount Zion shall never be removed; 
that one shall chase a thousand, and two shall put ten thou- 
sand to flight. We see in our own days how God is fulfilling 
his word. Have you been discouraged? Look at the tri- 
umph of the Church ! See how it hath taken hold of the 
press, the living teacher; see how men of business leave their 
stores in midday to worship God ! What means this senti- 
ment, spreading itself all through the national mind, but that 
God is preparing a people for a greater exercise of love, 
greater fidelity, and possibly that they may bear with Chris- 
tian fortitude trials which come from his hand ? And now, 
my brethren, allow me to make something of a specific refer- 
ence to the circumstances of our own nation. 

A cloud is gathering over our horizon. I trust, as you 
trust, that it will be all dispelled, and that clear light will 
yet shine as from the throne of glory, and that this land, 
which the God of our fathers gave us, may still be protected 
and kept under his special care. Whatever may be the issue, 
Christian minds should occupy this position : first, let each 
man intelligently and prayerfully do his duty, and his whole 
duty, as enlightened by the word and spirit of God. Then, 
having done that, let him calmly keep his mind fixed upon 



GOD'S REIGN OVER THE EARTH. 327 

the truth that the Lord reigneth, that the earth must rejoice; 
and that though his way may be in the sea and his path in 
the great deep, this much we know, that though the waves 
may rise high they never shall overflow us ; this much we 
know, that if we put our trust in him his promise is forever 
sure. What is his power? We read it on earth ; we read it 
in the heavens. I have spoken only of a few outlines. But 
see what God can do, and what resources he has. Did lie say 
of an ancient empire it should perish ? All its grandeur could 
not keep it. Did he say that Assyria should fall ? Its Nine- 
veh and Babylon could not save it ; its vast resources could 
not preserve it. The cry of the beast is heard there, and 
there is desolation, because the Lord hath said it. Palmyra 
built her palaces : the pillars of them stand, but the people 
are gone. If God said of a nation it should die, it vanished 
as a dream of the night ; and if God said his people should 
live, he also said : " No w T eapon that is formed against the 
righteous shall prosper." The land may rock, the seas may 
roar, and dismay may seem to come, but he will lift up a 
standard in the presence of the nations, and the God of our 
fathers shall still give victory to the side of righteousness and 
truth. 

And now may I address a word to such as never practical- 
ly submitted to the reign of God ? I see many here who, I 
trust, have bowed their hearts to the sway of the Omnipotent. 
I see many who have brought their lives into harmony with 
the will of God. You feel that God reigns. You can look 
out at night, and every star that shines in heaven proclaims 
that God reigns. You stand in the open air, and every breeze 
that fans your brow proclaims that God reigns ; you see the 
sun rising in the morning, and every ray of light that shines 
from the golden east proclaims that God reigns; you go 
through your garden, and all your flowers and shrubbery, and 
the sweet songsters of the air proclaim that God reigns ; the 
waves of the sea echo it back, the thunders of heaven roll it 
out, and all earth and sky proclaim that God reigneth. This 
gives you joy. But, oh, my fellow-sinner! you who have 
never submitted your heart to the mandates of God, what 



328 SERMONS. 

comfort can it give you that God reigns ? You may rebel, 
you may lift up your hand in opposition to the will of God, 
but still he reigns. The very power to lift up your arm 
comes from him. When you utter the oath of blasphemy 
you are using the mind God gave you in open defiance of his 
law. When you utter the whisperings of evil you are using 
the breath that God pours out of his own nature into your 
living structure for the purpose of abusing his kindness. 
Can you endure it? What can you do against God? See 
how he touches the earth and it moves, the mountains and 
they smoke. Look at the vast resources God has within the 
earth, and look at his power over the elements around us ! 
But a word shall be spoken and these elements will become 
agencies of destruction. It is only because God wills it that 
we prosper and that we live. What can you do ? O immor- 
tal being ! you are travelling to the grave ; you are wasting 
all the capital that God has given you. He has given you 
a body, a mind, a will ; he gave you this abundance that 
you might shine in glory, sing the songs of angels, and be 
happy as long as eternity shall endure. But you are abusing 
your resources, squandering your time, wasting your privi- 
leges, murdering your moments, and transgressing the law of 
God under the pretext of postponement, delay, and unwilling- 
ness to come now to Christ. You are jeoparding your all. I 
pray you cease your rebellion. God is the rightful sover- 
eign ; God reigns and shall forever reign ; he bath given all 
power to the Son, and has said that he shall reign until he 
hath put all things under his feet. Let me, then, beseech 
you to be reconciled to God ; submit to his government, own 
his sway, accept his providential dispensations here, and when 
the day of eternity shall come you shall be of that number 
who shall join in the great swelling chorus that shall fill the 
ages of eternity : " Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent 
reigneth." 



XIX. 



€jrt IRwnmctinir. 



THE EESUKRECTTOK 

"If a man die, shall he live again?" — Job xiv. 14. 

Tins question, though now more easily answered, was for- 
merly one of very grave doubt among the wisest of men. Phi- 
losophers, as well as peasants, labored long and earnestly to 
solve the mystery ; but perplexity and unrest were the end of 
all their thoughts ; for so shadowy was the future that they 
failed to obtain any clear knowledge of the realm beyond the 
grave. To them death was the king of terrors; and under 
circumstances like these friends mourned for friends with a 
sorrow which nothing but for^etfulness could alleviate. Ra- 
chel wept for her children, and would not be comforted, be- 
cause they were not. The parent who had lost a child, touched 
by the sight of its clothes, of its toys, might almost hear its 
lisping voice, might almost see its laughing eye, and clasp it in 
his arms again ; bat then would come thoughts of the dark, lone 
grave. At times we too may have recalled to memory pleas- 
ant scenes of past years — toils lightened by the smile of love, 
friendships strengthened by every bond of affection — but how 
soon have such thoughts been dispelled by visions of the dark 
room, the noiseless step, the cold brow, the fixed eye, the last 
farewell, the funeral procession, the grave, and the worm 
rioting on beauty's own loveliness. We have felt the pang of 
sorrow, until a voice from heaven has said, "Where I am, 
there ye shall be also ;" and, of the little ones, " Suffer the lit- 
tle children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of 
God." In this assembly every heart has either been called to 
mourn, or will be. Many of you, when standing b # y the grave, 
have asked : " If a man die, shall he live again ?" " Shall these 
loved ones, laid thus low, come to life once more?" It is un- 
der aspects like these that the question presses upon us with 



332 SERMONS. 

so much interest. The voice of revelation may speak, but so 
strong are the impressions of sense, we can scarcely remove 
them from the mind ; they return to us again and again, 
through the power of association and the laws of memory. 

Nor is there a distinct answer to be had to this question, 
apart from God's word. The inquiry may be presented as a 
twofold one : Is the soul immortal ? will the body be raised 
again ? 

And first, as to the immortality of the soul, revelation alone 
can give a satisfactory answer. We may reason from the 
mind's faculties, we may talk of its powers, and we may know 
the analogies that abound in nature, still the doubt comes back 
again — a doubt so strong that it never dispelled the fears of 
antiquity. Indeed, while the philosophers reasoned upon this 
subject; and reasoned ably, one of them, as able as any of his 
compeers, said that the philosophers had rather promise im- 
mortality than prove it to be true ; and Julius Caesar, as many 
may remember, declared, in a speech delivered in the Roman 
Senate, that death was the end of hope, as well as the end of 
fear. He felt somewhat as did the Greek poet in an elegy 
on his friend, when he sang : 

"Alas! the tender herbs and flowery tribes, 
When crushed by Winter's unrelenting hand, 
Revive and rise when vernal showers come ; 
But all the niight}% virtuous, and wise 
Bloom, fade, perish, fall; and then 
Long, dark, oblivious sleep succeeds, 
Which no propitious power dispels, 
Nor changing seasons, nor revolving years." 

But how delightful for us to turn from the mere conject- 
ures of philosophy, from the denials of orators and poets, and 
the dim fancies that hang over the mind, to the clear declara- 
tions of Holy Writ ! There we find that man is immortal, 
and that the breath which the Eternal Jehovah breathed into 
man shall last as long as eternity. 

But the second question : " Shall the body be raised ?" 
Here, too, we must appeal to the declarations of Holy Writ, 
for, if it occur, it is beyond the power of nature, and must be 
by supernatural power; and hence God alone can give the 



THE RESURRECTION. 333 

answer whether or not a resurrection of the dead can take 
place. When we turn to the Scriptures, we find that this 
doctrine is taught in various passages of the Old Testament. 
It is, indeed, only dimly foreshadowed ; yet, in the old Mo- 
saic law it is recognized. It is stated more full} 7 , however, 
by the prophets. You may recollect the passage where one, 
breaking out, says : " Thy dead men shall live, together with 
my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell 
in dust, for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall 
cast out the dead." You may recall the vision of Daniel in 
which he saw the end of time approaching: "Many of them 
that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake." But some 
may suggest : " If these passages are written of the resurrec- 
tion of the dead, why did not Christ, in his memorable discussion 
with the Sadducees, refer to some one of them ?" We answer, 
the Sadducees were a sceptical sect of the Jews, who, deny- 
ing the doctrine of spiritual existence and resurrection, had 
rejected all the parts of the Scriptures except the law of 
Moses. In that law they supposed there was no reference to 
the resurrection from the dead. Hence our Saviour, in his 
discussion with them, simply recalls a passage from the law, 
and says to them that the dead live. Is this not seen from 
the words, "1 am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, 
and the God of Jacob?" and he adds: "He is not the God 
of the dead, but the God of the living." The force of this 
passage will be more clearly seen if w r e reflect that if they 
were not in existence then, the declaration must have been, 
"I w r as the God." But in saying "I am" he denotes their 
continued existence. The Sadducees felt the force of this ar- 
gument, and dropped the discussion. But when w T e turn to the 
New Testament Scriptures, the doctrine is more clearly set 
forth — is, indeed, a prime article of Christian faith. Our Sav- 
iour, addressing the incredulous Jews, said : " Marvel not at 
this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the 
graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth ; they that 
have done good, unto the resurrection of life ; and they that 
have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." The 
apostle says, in reasoning on this subject: "If the dead rise 



334 SERMONS. 

not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not risen, 
then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain ; ye are 
yet in your sins." So that the resurrection of the body is not 
only explicitly declared, but the doctrine of it is recognized 
as being the foundation of Christian faith. The various parts 
of the apostolic writings refer to this, sometimes in the view 
of consolation, and sometimes in the view of responsibility. 
When the revelator saw the end of time approaching — the 
day when the elements are to melt with fervent heat, the day 
when the framework of the earth is to pass away — he breaks 
forth with the declaration : " I saw the dead, small and great, 
stand before God, and the books were opened ; and another 
book was opened, which is the book of life : and the dead 
were judged out of those things which were written in the 
books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the 
dead which were in it ; and death and hell delivered up the 
dead which were in them ; and they were judged every man 
according to his works." 

But not only by explicit declaration is this doctrine taught, 
but it was made clear to our comprehension in the resurrection 
of Christ from the dead. " He died for our offences, and was 
raised again for our justification ;" and it is said he " became 
the firstfruits of them that slept." The " firstfruits " was a 
technical expression among the Jews, very forcible to them, 
but not so directly forcible to us. We must place ourselves 
in their circumstances to appreciate its true meaning. The 
offering of the firstfruits was not only held by them in special 
reverence under the injunction of the law, but so connected 
itself with the harvest as to command their especial attention. 
A similar festival is now observed among some of our west- 
ern Indian tribes, and also among other nations. The law of 
firstfruits was this: When the ripening grain was seen in the 
fields some of it was cut, and before man was allowed to eat 
thereof, the first ripened heads were taken up to Jerusalem 
and laid before the altar of God as a thank-offering, as well 
as a pledge of the coming harvest. Now Christ represents 
himself as the firstfruits of them that slept. Here is the 
great human family, and God designs that a great harvest 



THE RESURRECTION. 335 

shall be gathered home. Christ, the firstfruits, is before the 
altar of God, the pledge of a harvest that shall be in the 
end, when humanity shall rise from the four corners of the 
earth, and the whole race shall stand before God. Then 
shall be accomplished, in the full resurrection, that of which 
Christ is the promise ; and as Christ rose from the dead, so 
shall we. The poet, in representing the ascent of Christ, fitly 
declares it was to him the birth of immortal hope ; that then 
his soul rose and passed the crystal ports of light. 

But sometimes a difficulty occurs to us, and we ask : " Can 
we believe what is mysterious % How can the dead rise % 
We cannot believe a mystery. We may conjecture, we may 
fancy and imagine in respect to what is mysterious, but faith 
cannot rest on mystery; hence if the resurrection be myste- 
rious, we cannot be required to believe it." But then the 
failure in the objector lies here, when he confounds mystery 
as to a fact, with mystery as to a mode. A fact may be plain 
while the mode of the fact may be mysterious. We may be- 
lieve the fact, while we are not required to believe anything 
with regard to the manner of the production of the fact. 
Let us illustrate. Take the growing grass in spring-time. 
That the earth sends forth the grass is plain. How are the 
particles of earth, the sunlight, the dew, the moisture, changed 
into the green leaf? By what process does one blade give 
forth wheat and another corn ? How is it that apparently 
the same particles are shaped into the beautiful color of the 
rose and the darker shade of the dahlia ? The mode is mys- 
terious, but the fact is plain. We know that the earth is cov- 
ered with verdure, that the flowers bloom in the garden, and 
that the trees are all beautified with foliage ; but by what 
process this is brought about we cannot tell. We may rea- 
son ; we may proceed step by step, but the nature of the 
process is beyond the investigation of man. So that we 
believe a fact while the mode of its development is mys- 
terious. 

Look again at those Northern lights that now blush on the 
horizon and then ascend in variegated columns towards the 
zenith. Who doubts that the heavens are illumined ? who 



336 SERMONS. 

doubts that he sees the phosphorescent currents flitting over 
the face of the sky ? and yet we may ask, how are they pro- 
duced ? The philosopher may talk of electricity, of a pas- 
sage through rarefied air and of a current from the pole to 
the equator. All this may be so, but wherein lies the cause? 
What are the laws regulating this change ? Why does the 
current become visible and then invisible ? We are lost in a 
maze of uncertainty when we ask these questions. I believe 
that my arm rises when the will so directs ; but how does it 
rise % I may study the machinery of bones, muscles, and 
nerves, but then the arm of the paralytic has the same ma- 
chinery, yet lacks the power of the will to act upon the nerves. 
Where is that power ? where is the point of contact ? how 
does the mind command the arm ? how does mind move matter, 
and exercise control over the universe? We cannot tell; all 
is lost in mystery. And yet who doubts that his arm rises, 
though he cannot explain the fact ? Who doubts his own 
feelings — hope, fear, love, and joy — though he cannot tell 
how these are produced ? The fact of their existence is plain, 
though the method by which they are occasioned may be un- 
known. So when we look at the doctrine of the resurrection 
it is simply a doctrine of fact. As to the manner of the res- 
urrection, all that is mysterious, and we are not required to 
understand it in order to believe. But it is said by some, if 
we had testimony upon this point, as we have in reference to 
the matters of sense, we might believe. I answer, does our 
faith rest mainly upon our senses ? Nay ; is not the testi- 
mony of the senses a mere fractional part of the evidence we 
receive ? Am I a man of trade ? What do I see of the arti- 
cles in which I traffic ? what do I know of the lands from 
which they come ? have I ever crossed the waters that sepa- 
rate those lands from mine ? I send for a cargo of tea to 
China, and yet I have never seen China. I trust my fortune 
in a vessel which I have never examined, and the laws of 
whose construction I have never studied. Do I not confi- 
dently rely upon written history ? do I not dwell on the 
teachings of the past ? Has my mind been fortified by those 
great principles through which the study of history gives 



THE RESURRECTION. 337 

strength to man ? and yet, what have I known experimentally 
of the facts set forth ? What do I know of these things but 
upon the testimony of others ? I have never seen, I have 
never heard, and these senses have never proved them. 

I rely simply upon what men have said. Is my property 
at stake or in jeopardy ? I apply to a counsellor learned in 
the law. I am not familiar with the principles of law ; I am 
not acquainted with the rules that govern in the courts ; and 
yet, when my attorney tells me that thus and so reads the 
law, I rest in his word. I have confidence in what he says, 
though I understand not clearly the way in which the desired 
result is to be brought about. Is my friend ill, or am I ill 
myself ? I take medicine from the hand of my physician, 
and yet I know not in what manner that medicine works a? 
cure. If the physician is an honest man, he himself will say 
he knows nothing of the processes by which the medicines 
operate on the human system. Experiment has shown that 
certain articles produce specific results. If I take an opiate, 
I experience stupefaction ; if I take arsenic, death follows. 
Why does the one operate differently from the other? There 
is no solution other than that God has so constituted the 
human system that it is affected thus and so by various sub- 
stances. And now, though the manner is all mysterious, 
though I am ignorant of every reason for it, } 7 et I trust my 
life and the life of my dearest friend on the declaration of 
the physician. It is faith that leads me so to act. What do 
I know of this universe ? I speak of the heavenly bodies. 
Have I measured their angles? have I computed their orbits? 
have I tested the system of the universe to know what it is ? 
I rest my belief on the declarations of the astronomer. I 
have a belief in reference to the stratification of rocks in 
certain order, but I have never examined them. I trust to 
the statement of the geologist. So is it all through nature ; 
but though man will believe the records of history, though 
he will trust himself implicitly to the statements of his fel- 
low-men, yet he hesitates when God speaks from heaven, 
with a voice declaring : " Marvel not at this, for the hour is 
coming in which they that are in their graves shall hear the 

22 



338 SERMONS. 

voice of the Son of God and shall come forth." Oh! how 
little we know that is not enshrouded in mystery ! 

Well did Newton say, when an old man, bending under the 
weight of years, that he was like a little child on the ocean's 
beach, gathering a few pebbles from the vast heaps that lay 
strewn around. But we have a firm basis when we listen to 
the declaration of God. Still, the mind sometimes turns away 
and asks : " How can it be that there will be a resurrection ? 
is it not impossible ? Do not the particles of the human body 
enter into the composition of plants and of substances that 
may feed on human flesh ? Can it be possible, when the 
body is burned, the bones ground to powder, and the ashes 
strewed upon the wind or sunk in the ocean's depth, that 
these particles will be reunited % Can they be gathered to- 
gether, and shall that body in its particles coexist ? I ask on 
what does the objection rest \ If we analyze the feeling, is 
it not this : that God, the great Architect, cannot follow in 
his knowledge the particles whithersoever they go, or that he 
has not ability to reconstruct that frame again ? I go into 
the shop of the silversmith and leave my watch to be re- 
paired ; the wheels are worn, the pivots no longer perform 
their office. If I take the watch to pieces I cannot remem- 
ber the wheels well enough to replace them : he withdraws 
the pins, unfastens the various parts, strews them all around, 
lays them away, and in the lapse of days or weeks takes them 
up, puts them piece to its piece, part to its part, and recon- 
stitutes the framework again. And why ? Because he has a 
knowledge of the fitness of every particle. Shall the great 
Architect be unable to remember the particles of our body, 
and watch their way wherever they may be in this wide uni- 
verse ? or is it in the power of man to so scatter the particles 
of matter that God cannot reunite them ? 

Again, the question whether he will, must be solved by 
himself. Is it clear that he can % The silversmith knows 
not the particles of the watch ; the shepherd knoweth not the 
names of his flock ; the husbandman knoweth not the parts 
of his farm, as God knoweth and hath marked every particle 
of matter in this wide universe. He is omniscient and om- 



THE RESURRECTION. 339 

nipresent; no atom leaves his eye, no action of nature is be- 
yond his province. When the Christian surveys the omnipo- 
tence, the omnipresence, and the omniscience of God, he feels 
that he stands on a sure footing; and when he listens to the 
Word of God, he will say : ." Let death come ; let this body 
fail ; let me be burned at the stake ; let my bones be ground 
to powder ; throw my ashes to the winds ; or bury them in 
the ocean's deep ; yea, carry them up to the summit of yon 
volcano, and yet 

"God, my redeemer, lives, 
And ever from the skies 
Looks down and watches all my dust, 
Till he shall bid it rise." 

The Christian's faith stands on the word of God. But 
while we rest it there, there are analogies in nature to help 
our minds, and, if possible, to impress more clearly this doc-, 
trine upon us. There is the sleep of winter. The tree, 
which was once full of foliage, parts with its leaves at the ap- 
proach of the autumnal frosts ; there seems to come a death, 
and yet it is but partial. The tree, though bare, though cov- 
ered with the ice of winter, though there is no swelling bud 
to be seen, yet, when the spring-time returns, the bud will en- 
large, the leaves will reappear, the flowers will crown the 
branches, and it will bring forth fruit after its kind. Here 
is revivification — an awakening again. We have this same 
principle illustrated at night in the sleep of our body ; the 
image of death, and the waking up to life again. Who 
knows but by this arrangement of nature God designed to 
teach us the possibility of a resurrection ? These are but 
partial illustrations ; there are others in nature. Look at the 
strange transformations in animal life. There is the cater- 
pillar, an object almost of disgust, which, if noticed at all, is 
noticed with a feeling of aversion — watch its labors as it 
spins itself a web, a winding-sheet. It appears the image of 
death, and yet if we watch that chrysalis, by and by the ball 
w T ill burst, and there will come out of it, not the caterpillar 
that took up its abode in the tree, that spun the thread and 
went to sleep, but instead of it a beautiful butterfly, vane- 



340 SERMONS. 

gated with almost every possible color, flying from flower 
to flower, seemingly enjoying the bright universe of God. 
Here is a transformation — I had almost said a resurrection. 
If such things take place, who knows what we shall be? We 
may be laid in the shroud, we may be buried in the grave, 
we may sleep the long, long sleep — even angels may look 
down and see no sign of life ; but the tomb shall open, the 
shroud shall disappear, and there shall come up from the 
grave, not the worm of the dust in its precise form when laid 
there, but a being brighter than angelic creation, and that 
shall dwell near to the throne of God. Here are indications 
even from nature to tell us there may be a resurrection. Yet 
these, though analogies, are not proofs ; for even these creat- 
ures shall die and be no more. They are not proofs, but 
they are illustrations of what Almighty power can do. 

But, it may be said, if these bodies shall rise, will there not 
be the same infirmities ? I answer, the figure to which I 
have already alluded may teach us that there will be changes, 
though the same body. What these shall be I cannot tell. 
And yet, nature throws some light upon this point. The 
chemist or the mineralogist will show you that the same matter 
crystallizes sometimes in different shapes, and he will explain 
to you what he knows of the different forms of the same sub- 
stance. Let us take some varieties of it known to every one of 
us. Limestone and marble are essentially the same substance, 
yet far differently constituted. We have further illustrations 
of this principle. The air we breathe, the chemist tells us, is 
composed of oxygen and nitrogen. The school-boy knows 
this, taught as he is in the chemical language of the day, and 
yet these elements, oxygen and nitrogen, when compounded 
in different proportions, produce the dangerous aquafortis 
of our shops. There is no difference in the air which we 
breathe and nitric acid, except in the proportion in which 
those elements are mingled together. The charcoal which 
we trample under foot as worthless is precisely the same sub- 
stance, in an impure state, as the costly diamond, both having 
carbon as a basis. The one is worthless, and the other brings 
a princely price. They are differently fashioned by Divine 



THE RESURRECTION. 341 

skill. And may not these worthless bodies of ours, that are 
like the dust of the earth now, when differently fashioned by 
Divine power, shine as diamonds in the day when God shall 
come to make up his jewels ? Here we see the Divine power 
may differently fashion matter ; and the apostle, in speaking 
of this, says: "Who shall change our vile body that it may 
be fashioned like unto his glorious body V 

But then, again, what says reason with regard to a resur- 
rection from the dead ? I answer, reason must say that there 
ought to be a resurrection of the dead. Look at the conditions 
of humanity. Shall I live ? shall the soul be immortal ? have 
I sinned in that frame with which the soul was united ? would 
it not be proper that I should suffer the penalty of my sin 
in the same nature? Did I, because of my love for truth, 
allow this frame to be mangled rather than utter a falsehood ? 
Did I suffer this tongue to be torn from my mouth ; did I die 
as a martyr, or burn at the stake, rather than deny the Lord 
that bought me? How fitting that in the day of eternity I 
should wear a martyr's crown ! that the same brow that had 
been pierced should be radiant with glory; that the same 
tongue that had been taken from my lips should be eloquent 
again with praise; that the same hand which was thrust into 
the flames rather than betray its master should receive im- 
mortal life! Is there not a beauty, a fitness, in the idea of 
the resurrection from the dead? But without it, God's plan 
would be incomplete. Consider the fall of man and the at- 
tending circumstances. I cannot tell why he was created. 
That he was created and that he did fall are points strangely 
mysterious. There was matter before man's creation, matter 
with all its organic laws ; there was spirit before man's crea- 
tion; there were angelic beings, full of thought and light and 
life; but where was the union between mind and matter, 
apart from the direct power of God, who himself may be 
styled the soul of the universe? How was mind to act on 
matter? God, in the creation of man, strangely and myste- 
riously united spirit and matter together, to give man an ex- 
hibition of his own power, his own lordship over creation. 
Man stands as this united being; this compound ruler of the 



342 SERMONS. 

earth, his spirit direct from God, his body from the dust of 
the earth. Now, when man sinned, the consequence was 
death. Death involved the separation of the soul from God ; 
the moral death, the loss of communion with God ; and it 
also involved the separation of the spirit from the body. 
Now, if death were to reign, there would be no need of resur- 
rection ; but Christ was revealed " to destroy the works of 
the devil ;" he became life to man ; he became the second 
Adam to restore us. But if death shall reign forever, if the 
soul shall always be severed from the body, and there be no 
reunion, is not the scheme of the enemy accomplished % is not 
one great part of creation blotted from the mass ? hath not 
sin destroyed the work of the Almighty himself ? 

There needs to be a reunion, in order that the triumph 
through Christ shall be complete. When my soul is brought 
back to the favor of God ; when, walking in the garden, I 
have no longer the inclination to hide myself; when heaven 
comes down to earth ; when that strange veil that hides the 
invisible from my view is taken away, and I see God near 
me ; when that deafness of my ear disappears, and I hear 
God's forgiving voice as he whispers, " Thy sins which are 
many are all forgiven " — then I have the beginning of spirit- 
ual life ; then my soul is drawn up towards God. Why, on 
earth there are friendships so sweet, so delightful, that we 
sometimes sinaj: 

"My willing soul would stay 
In such a frame as this, 
And sit and sing herself away 
To everlasting bliss.'* 

And yet, after all, it is but the reversal of part of the curse. 
It is the destruction of spiritual death, but the physical still 
remains. Christ came to be a perfect conqueror, to make no 
compromise with the enemy, to release man from under the 
curse of the law, and as such he restores the soul to fellow- 
ship with God here, and by and by he will call to the grave, 
and it shall give up its prey. Our friends shall rise again ; 
the very friends we love, whom we laid in the grave, shall 
come forth — and we shall see them — to share our joys, or 



THE RESURRECTION. 343 

to be witnesses against us for the deeds done in the body. 
There is a reasonableness, I say, in the doctrine of the resur- 
rection of the dead, for without it Christ's triumph would be 
only partial, and the curse of the law would not be annulled. 
But when it shall be annulled, I shall rise, and then soul and 
body will be reunited in the New Jerusalem, with powers 
improved, with a nature glorified. It is then I shall enjoy 
the fulness of redeeming love. Even now, planting myself 
on the declarations of Scripture, I feel that I can put my 
heel on the neck of the monster, and can say : " O death ! 
thou too shalt die ; O grave ! I will be thy plagues ; O death ! 
I will be thy destruction." 



XX. 



Cjrt <&M nti tjre 3\mm Bitin nf tjit 
fcifctfntintt nf inn's iinnj. 



THE EFFECT ON THE HUMAN MIND OF THE 
MANIFESTATION OF GOD'S GLOKY. 

"And lie said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. And he said, I will 
make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of 
the Lord before thee ; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and 
will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. And he said, Thou canst 
not see my face; for there shall no man see me and live." — Exodus xxxiii. 
18-20. 

Correct views of the divine character lie at the foundation 
of true religion. We may not indeed understand all the di- 
vine attributes, or even know their number, but with such 
as most directly influence human conduct we may become 
acquainted through nature and revelation. Where nations 
have acknowledged " lords many and gods many," discord and 
war have been, not mere casualties, but natural and almost 
necessary consequences of their theology. If Mars and Ju- 
piter, Juno and Minerva, had conflicting interests in heaven, 
and if fierce contests raged among the gods, what else could 
be expected of their worshippers on earth % As there were 
"gods of the hills and gods of the valleys" — as each nation 
traced its origin through a long line of ancestry to some one 
of the contending deities — so it might be expected that each 
nation should be jealous for the honor and glory of its founder. 
The unity of the Deity revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and 
the common origin of the human family expressly asserted, 
sweep away, at once and forever, the greatest justification for 
hostilities, and all pretence for tyranny and oppression. We 
have but one God, and we are all brethren. The attributes 
with which the divine character is invested have also a power- 
ful influence on the mind. If to the Deity is ascribed, as in 
heathen mytholog} T , the possession of the animal propensities 
and desires, then the worship will be conformable to such de- 



348 SERMONS. 

sires, and licentiousness and extravagance of every description 
will be mingled in the ceremonies. The rolling wheel shall 
crush its victim, the fire consume the infant offering, or pu- 
rity be sacrificed unblushingly at the altar of the commanding 
deity. 

Carrying forward the same train of thought, we shall find 
that even under the full light of the system of Christianity 
the peculiar aspect in which the divine character is viewed 
will greatly modify Christian conduct and life. Notwith- 
standing all read the same revelation, and ascribe the same 
attributes to the Deity, yet, perhaps, each individual fixes 
in a different degree his estimate of the relation of these at- 
tributes to man ; and possibly, in each mind, some one of 
the divine attributes is more regarded, or at least more con- 
stantly a subject of thought, than any other. Thus, upon one 
may rest a sense of the terrible majesty of God. He may 
seem to hear him as when he spake in such grandeur from the 
top of Sinai. On another may rest a sense of veneration, 
and the still small voice seems ever to sound in his ears, "Be 
still, and know that I am God." To a third is presented most 
vividly the idea of holiness; and to a fourth the idea, the 
triumphant thought, is, " God is love." 

These various views must greatly modify our mode of 
approach to God. He whose mind is filled with ideas of 
grandeur and majesty, to whom every voice seems to pro- 
claim, " Our God is a consuming fire," must, when his soul is 
penitent, approach even in prayer with overwhelming awe; 
while another, who regards the Deity as an affectionate Father, 
though he come confounded by a sense of his guilt, and melted 
at the thought of the amazing condescension of an offended 
Ruler, yet, viewing the arms of mercy, extended to meet 
the returning prodigal, even dares to "come holdly to a 
throne of grace." Many of the young — and for them our 
remarks are made — are taught, even in the nursery, to clothe 
the Deity with attributes of vengeance. As they grow old- 
er this idea grows in strength ; religion becomes a fearful 
thought; moroseness or terror is most intimately associated 
with their notions of Christianity, and they will not think 



MANIFESTATION OF THE DIVINE GLOKY. 349 

of God because the idea is one of awful dread. And per- 
haps few passages in the Word of God have been more fre- 
quently used to strengthen this impression upon the mind than 
part of our text, " For there shall no man see me and live." 

Being fully persuaded that love is the great characteristic 
of the Deity, as revealed through Christ, and that all young 
persons ought so to be taught, we consider first : What Moses 
desired when he prayed, " I beseech thee show me thy glory." 
The " glory of God " is used in the sacred writings in several 
distinct meanings. Sometimes it is applied to an exhibition 
of some astonishing appearance, indicating supernatural power 
— sometimes to a display of the wisdom and benevolence of 
the Deity, in his works — sometimes to his dispensations tow- 
ards man, as seen in the history of individuals — and some- 
times to his purposes of mercy yet to be revealed. By fur- 
ther examination we may see to which one of these the desire 
of the leader of Israel was directed. 

Did he desire to behold some glorious manifestation of 
the Deity: some outward form or shape to represent the 
great Jehovah? Why should such be his desire? In the 
first place, he must have had correct views of the Deity ; he 
must have known that "God is a spirit;" that "no man hath 
seen God at any time ;" that a spiritual being cannot be ma- 
terially discerned, and that though a glorious light, or thick 
clouds and sounds of power, may accompany his revelations 
to man, yet that light, or those clouds or sounds, indicate his 
presence, but do not represent his form ; they exhibit his 
power, not his person. We say, Moses must have known all 
this, because he was taught the knowledge of the true God 
from his childhood — tradition from Shem to Moses passed 
through but few hands — and then he had been taught of God. 
Forty years he had wandered in solitude ; a shepherd's life 
gave him time and opportunity for divine communion — for 
deep and holy reflection. When thus prepared, great revela- 
tions had been vouchsafed to him, and he had conversed with 
God in the hallowed mount for forty days — had received the 
immutable law for the human family — and consequently must 
have known much of the divine character. 



350 SERMONS. 

Our tendency to attach form to the Deity arises from the 
limited nature of our faculties. "We are principally influenced 
by external qualities ; we judge by them ; and though we know 
a spirit has not the ordinary properties of matter, yet we can 
form no distinct conception without associating with it some of 
these. When we think of an angel, or the spirit of a departed 
one whom we loved on earth, though we give no definite form, 
yet there is a something which flits before the mind. It may 
be a small bright cloud, so greatly attenuated as to be scarcely 
perceptible — a thin light mist — a floating vapor — but still 
there is form. So in our ordinary conceptions of the Deity, 
though we know he hath not body and parts, yet we imagine 
some appearance. It may be superlative brightness or terrible 
majesty ; our conceptions may be infinitely varied as to mag- 
nitude, form, and place; still there is an appearance. And 
this, we may casually remark, has ever been a fruitful source 
of idolatry. 

As these views arise from the imperfection of our faculties, 
or from our want of knowledge, we cannot properly attribute 
them to one so advanced as Moses in knowledge, both human 
and divine. But, why should he desire to behold such exter- 
nal displays of glory and power? He had worshipped at the 
burning bush ; had been made the messenger of God to an- 
nounce the most astonishing prodigies to the Egyptians ; at 
his word the Nile had flowed in currents of blood ; darkness 
had, in its most fearful form, brooded over the kingdom ; and 
the messenger of death had made every family to send forth 
a long, loud, piercing wail for the first-born. The sea had di- 
vided at his approach ; the divine presence, as a pillar of cloud 
by day, and of fire by night, had been his guide and protec- 
tion, and, lastly, he had stood amidst the terrific scenes of 
Sinai until he exclaimed, " I do exceedingly fear and quake." 
What greater manifestations could he wish to behold ? Surely 
these had been enough, more than enough, to satisfy the most 
enlarged desire. 

May he have used the expression in the sense of the psalm- 
ist where he says, " The heavens declare the glory of God ;" 
desiring to understand more of creative power and skill % 



MANIFESTATION OF THE DIVINE GLORY. 351 

There can be no doubt that lie earnestly desired to know all 
that could be known of the great work of creation. But prob- 
ably he had, before this time, received by revelation the 
history of the world's production. He had stood as on some 
distant eminence, and beheld when "He spake and it was 
done; he commanded, and it stood fast." He had seen the 
earth springing into existence, robed in innocence and loveli- 
ness. And having received such views, standing thus as a 
witness to this great fact, he could scarcely have asked for 
further description. 

Is it probable that he desired to behold the glory of God, 
as manifested in his past government of the world % In this 
he had already been taught. He had been made the world's 
sole historian for near two thousand years. Before his mind 
had passed the history of the race, with all its mutations; its 
creation in innocence and majesty; its dreadful fall; ejection 
from Paradise ; the stains of sin upon the earth, too deep to be 
effaced even by the rush of waters in the mighty deluge. ISTot 
only had he received Abrahamic traditions and all that Egyp- 
tian lore could furnish, but God himself had been his great 
instructor, to show to man, through him, his " glory," in the 
rise and fall of kingdoms, the elevation or degradation of the 
race. Since then his prayer could not refer to external exhibi- 
tions of the glory of the Deity, or to his creative power, or past 
government of the world, it only remains for us to turn tow- 
ards the future. And if we view the circumstances surround- 
ing him, we shall see that by his prayer, " I beseech thee, show 
me thy glory," he desired to comprehend the merciful purposes 
of God towards the Israelites, and through them to the world. 
He anxiously wished to understand more fully the whole plan 
of salvation, and to see the things that should happen in the 
" latter days." 

That the Almighty had great designs in view for the Israel- 
ites he had a right to infer from what had already been done 
for them. As when an architect collects in one place a vast 
quantity of materials we have a right to expect the erection 
of some magnificent edifice, so, from previous and vast prep- 
aration on the part of the Deity, some event of momentous 



352 SERMONS. 

importance might be inferred. Abraham had been called 
from his native land and from among his kindred ; had trav- 
elled over Canaan in expectation that it should be his, while 
yet owned and inhabited by powerful nations ; his sons had 
been trained under peculiar circumstances ; providentially led 
into Egypt, and then made a race of slaves, oppressed and 
shamefully treated ; then rescued amidst signs and wonders 
" with a high hand and an outstretched arm," while the 
sprinkled blood of the slaughtered lamb prefigured a higher 
and holier deliverance of humanity from a still more accursed 
bondage. "What connection this had with the hope of a Mes- 
siah who should wield a sceptre, and of a Prophet who should 
teach his people, he could not fully see : and what meant all 
this vast display in the wilderness ; this heavenly direction ; 
this manna from on high ; the tables of the law ; the taber- 
nacle with its symbols and ceremonies, he could not fully com- 
prehend, but in the earnestness of his soul he prayed, " I be- 
seech thee, show me thy glory." 

Again, the circumstances through which lie had just passed 
were of a most singular character. He had been upon the 
sacred mount. Israel had said, " Let not God speak with us ;" 
and Moses had stood as their representative for forty days. 
But this very people who had heard the voice of God had 
turned to idolatry at the foot of the mount. Their jewels had 
been collected and formed into a golden calf — the god of 
the Egyptians, from whose service they had been delivered. 
" They had sat down to eat, and rose up to play." With what 
feelings must the man of God have turned from the mount ; 
from converse with the Deity ! But as he descended, and the 
sound of revelry burst upon his ear, he could restrain himself 
no longer; he dashed from his hand the tables of the law, 
written by the finger of Omnipotence, and they brake at the 
foot of Sinai. 

This act was censurable ; and yet it furnishes no small indi- 
cation of the feelings by which he was then influenced, the 
views by which he was governed. He may have supposed 
that the Israelites were honored because of their faith. They 
were free from idolatry. And it was right that an idolatrous 



MANIFESTATION OF THE DIVINE GLORY. 353 

nation should be destroyed to furnish this pious people a place 
of abode. Bat, if so, what now shall be done to the Israelites ? 
Bad as were the Canaan ites, the Israelites were far worse. 
The people of Palestine had been taught idolatry ; they had 
seen no miracles ; no pillar of fire had guided them ; no sea 
had been divided before them ; they had not been fed from 
heaven, and had never heard the voice of God. Their sin was 
in part palliated by ignorance. But this people, while eating 
bread from heaven, with the throne of God in the midst of 
them, surrounded with the clouds of his grandeur hanging in 
awful magnificence as curtains around the mountain's summit, 
while he himself was writing for them his eternal law, as if to 
insult him, had made a golden calf. They had clothed it with 
the attributes of Jehovah ; ascribed to it the miracles of the 
deliverance, and then, as in mockery, had cried out in the ear 
of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, " These be thy 
gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of 
Egypt." 

Nor was it only the thoughtless, the ignorant, the obscure, 
that engaged in this blasphemy. Aaron — the eloquent Aaron 
— the mouth of Moses, when he spake the word of God unto 
Pharaoh, with the elders of Israel, had joined in the impious 
rites. Under such circumstances, if Canaanites merited the 
wrath of God, seventy -and -seven fold should be the ven- 
geance taken on Israel. If to the one were appointed the de- 
stroying sword, what but fire from heaven to consume, or a 
yawning earth to engulf, could be a fit punishment for the 
deeds of the other ? Is it wonderful that Moses should cast 
from his hands a law for which this people were now unpre- 
pared, and should, in the anguish of his heart, despair for them 
as to the mercy of God ? 

But vengeance does not fall from heaven. The people are 
still spared. And, after various periods of supplication, he is 
even answered, "My presence shall go with thee, and I will 
give thee rest." What can this mean — the idolatrous Canaan- 
ite cut off, the idolatrous Jew spared ? Some great devel- 
opment must be in preparation, some grand display of the 
divine character. What can be the measure of that mercy 



354 SERMONS. 

which is preceded by the preparatory act of the pardon of two 
millions and a half of people ? His longing soul desires to 
know all the purposes of God. The act of mercy, just wit- 
nessed, kindled within him a greater love for God, a more 
earnest wish to fathom the depths of his goodness; and, with 
the vehemence of intense desire, he cries out, " I beseech thee, 
show me thy glory" — grant me a full exhibition of thy mercy 
and thy love. 

Let us next consider how far this desire was satisfied. In 
answer to this earnest prayer the Deity replies (v. 19), " I will 
make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the 
name of the Lord before thee ; and will be gracious to whom 
I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew 
mercy." Again in verses 21-23, "Behold there is a place by 
me, and thou shall stand upon a rock ; and it shall come to 
pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft 
of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass 
by ; and I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my 
back parts." And again, it is said, in chap, xxxiv. 5-7, " And 
the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, 
and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed 
by before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, 
merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in good- 
ness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving ini- 
quity, and transgression, and sin, and that will by no means 
clear the guilty ; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the 
children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and 
to the fourth generation." 

In this manifestation of the divine character to Moses, a 
few particulars may be noticed. 

He proclaimed the name of the Lord before him. This 
probably refers to such a general view of the divine adminis- 
tration as exhibits the benevolence, holiness, and justice of 
God, intimately blended in the government of man. 

He made all his goodness pass before him. This was prob- 
ably a prophetic view of his mercy to the Israelites as a nation ; 
in which was exhibited not merely his sparing them on that 
occasion, but their settlement and continuance in the holy 



MANIFESTATION OF THE DIVINE GLORY. 355 

land, and the strict fulfilment of the promises made to the 
patriarchs in their behalf. 

He showed him his administration as a sovereign: "I will 
be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will shew mercy 
on whom I will shew mercy." Here was explained the dif- 
ference of the treatment of Israel and Canaan. The latter 
had filled the measure of their iniquity as a nation, and no 
great benefit would be secured to the race by their national 
existence; while the former, though guilty of aggravated sins, 
might, as a nation, be made a blessing to the world. For the 
accomplishment of some great good to man, a nation might 
be made the subject of mercy and grace, as to civil existence 
and prosperity, without an}' actual good deserts — thus show- 
ing the national bearing of a passage with which many pious 
individuals have been greatly perplexed. Yet the same prin- 
ciple may have, and doubtless often has had, application to 
individuals so far as temporal position is concerned, but not 
extending to their salvation. Yet both as to nations and in- 
dividuals, when the day of employment shall be over, crime 
shall be visited with punishment; in the individual it may 
not be on earth, but in nations it shall be visited "upon the 
children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and 
to the fourth generation." 

He gave him a prophetic view of the mission of Christ. 
This is indicated in the expression, " Thou shalt see my back 
parts." The Hebrew word in this place translated " back 
parts" refers to time as well as to position. And many able 
commentators and critics have referred this passage to the in- 
carnation of Christ. This rendering conforms so well to the 
general use of the w r ord, and to the tenor of Scripture, that 
there can be but little doubt of its correctness. And a free 
translation might be, "Thou shalt see me, as manifested in the 
latter days" 

The revelation appears to have been given to Moses to 
strengthen his own faith, and to fit him for the arduous du- 
ties required of the leader of such a people. He is placed in 
a "cleft of the rock," and before him passes, as though spread 1 
out on an immense canvas, the representation of the future. 



356 SERMONS. 

He beholds the divine goodness to the rebellious Jew; sees 
him settled in the Holy Land ; kings and princes, wise and 
noble, and holy men adorn their race, and Judea is a blessing 
to the world. And as the pillar of cloud and the ark and its 
mercy-seat are sometimes called the glory of God, so he be- 
holds, in the institutions of his people, in the influences of his 
law, and the messages of the prophets, the "glory of God" 
spreading among men. But a shade falls upon the canvas. 
The Deity hides the future in his hand. Again his hand is 
removed — the indications of some grand coming event become 
closer and closer, as rays of hallowed light emerging to a focus, 
until at last, as the " glory of the only begotten of the Father," 
he beholds "the seed of Abraham, in whom the nations of the 
earth shall be blessed ;" the " Shiloh " of Jacob, who grasped 
the departing sceptre of Judah. His soul leaps forward to 
meet him on the mount of transfiguration ; joy swells his 
heart, and he can hear no more. He bows his head and 
worships. 

We can now inquire why his petition was not fully granted. 

From what has been already expressed, we are prepared to 
assume that it was not because in any manifestation there would 
be such terrific grandeur as should destroy human existence. 
For, first, Moses, we think, did not pray for external manifes- 
tations. These could be but symbols ; and, however vast and 
magnificent the symbols might be, they never could adequately 
represent the divine character. But, secondly, there is no 
intimation made, as we think, that if an exhibition were given, 
it would be one of terrific majesty. If the dispensations of 
God towards man are pre-eminently characterized by mercy, 
and if his love cannot be expressed in language, and can be 
adequately revealed only in the incarnation and passion of his 
only-begotten Son, then, if his character could be portrayed by 
symbols, if his glory could thus be made known, the symbols 
must be those of superlative benevolence, of condescending 
grace. We are aware that the expression of the apostle, "For 
our God is a consuming fire," is sometimes quoted to sustain 
the terrific view of the divine character; but this refers to his 
judgments upon the finally impenitent, and not to any mani- 



MANIFESTATION OF THE DIVINE GLORY. 357 

festations or dispensations towards those who are still on pro- 
bation. 

The language employed in the text, "Thou canst not see 
my face ; for there shall no man see me and live," does not 
express any reason why man is unable to bear a view of the 
Deity. It simply declares the fact that man cannot see the 
face of God. If, then, we inquire what is meant by the term 
"face," we are at once satisfied that it can have no such ap- 
plication to a spirit as it has to man. It must be used figura- 
tively. And as the face is that part of the human form which 
remains uncovered and visible; that part which particularly 
indicates to others the definite person ; while other parts of 
the form are protected by raiment — so the term is used figu- 
ratively to signify that which is fully or clearly seen; and 
when applied to the Deity, would be a full revelation of the 
divine character; embracing all his plans of mercy and be- 
nevolence to his created intelligences. 

The reason why man could not behold this and live would 
not be because of its terror or majesty, but because the view 
of the riches of his grace, his compassion and benevolence, 
would excite emotions of reverence, of admiration, of love, 
and of joy too overwhelming for humanity to bear. Each 
manifestation of the benevolence of God called forth songs 
of joy and ascriptions of praise from those who beheld them 
in ancient times. They rejoiced when they beheld the "bow 
of promise" spanning the arch of heaven with its glorious 
array of colors ; when they saw the intervention of the pillar 
of cloud by day, and the guidance of the pillar of fire by 
night ; when the sea parted before them, and they saw the 
salvation of God ; when, for the deliverance of Israel, the As- 
syrian host was smitten before the angel of the Lord ; when 
the divine glory descended and rested upon the tabernacle they 
had reared, and when, after their captivity, the second temple 
was erected and consecrated, amidst the tears and rejoicings 
of the restored captives. In these, and many other displays 
of benevolence and love, the ancient Jews rejoiced greatly. 
The spirits of the prophets rejoiced within them when, in 
vision, they beheld the day of Christ ; and when the devout 



358 SERMONS. 

Simeon saw even the infant Jesus brought into the temple his 
joy swelled into ecstasy, and, having all he could desire, he 
cried out in rapture, " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant 
depart in peace, according to thy word ; for mine eyes have 
seen thy salvation." Now if, in these cases, a single view 
had such an effect, what would be the result if all the mercy 
and compassion of God, in its unbounded immensity and 
inexhaustible fulness, could, at one moment, be revealed to 
the human mind ? Humanity could not bear the vision. No 
man can see "the face of God and live;" because the sublim- 
ity of the view would produce not only " joy unspeakable and 
full of glory," but joy by which the soul would be unfitted 
for dwelling in the body. To support this view we may reflect, 
that thoughts exciting emotions even of a pleasurable character 
may extend so far as to become destructive, and that emotions 
of joy may, in themselves, destroy life. Light is pleasant, it 
spreads a halo of beauty and glory over the face of nature. 
The eye is never satisfied with the revelations which are made 
through its medium. Yet let that light, which thus spreads 
beauty around, fall upon the eye in the concentrated form of 
a ray from the meridian sun, and the power of vision is im- 
paired, if not totally destroyed. What delight is communi- 
cated by means of sound ! the melody of birds, the murmur 
of the waterfall, the music of instruments, and the sound of 
that sweetest and richest of all instruments, the human voice, 
awaken the most pleasurable emotions. And yet, let that mur- 
mur of the waterfall be changed into the roar of the cataract, 
and it is deafening. Sound may be so intense and prolonged 
that the auditory nerve shall no longer respond to its vibra- 
tions. 

The same is true of mental emotion. How the mind oper- 
ates upon the body we cannot tell. No anatomist has detected 
the fine chords which bind spirit and matter together. But 
that the emotions of the mind do affect the body is universally 
admitted. Death from surprise, from fright, from terror, from 
all the depressing passions, has been by no means uncommon. 
And where death has not ensued, how many have been made 
maniacs for life ! Nor is excitement confined to the unpleas- 



MANIFESTATION OF THE DIVINE GLORY. 359 

ant emotions. Scenes of sublimity may inspire, as much as 
scenes of terror can alarm. Man's soul responds as quickly 
and as strongly to the beautiful, the lovely, the good, as to 
that which offends or disgusts. And the emotions arising 
from the beautiful are no more under our control, and are 
no more limited in strength, than those of the opposite char- 
acter. 

In the every-day walks of life who has not known of a case 
like this ? A beloved son has left the home of fond parents 
to engage in commercial pursuits, or visit some distant place. 
By various causes his stay is prolonged, until at last the tidings 
reach his parents that he was wrecked off some rocky coast, 
or that he perished in a fatal epidemic. They mourn for him 
as one that is lost ; and they think of him only as in the spirit 
world. Years pass away, and, though strangely preserved, his 
parents are not aware of his existence. He starts for home. 
Already he stands upon the hill that overlooks the scenes of 
his boyhood ; the house and trees and shrubs all stand as 
when he left; his heart exults at the thought of embracing 
his parents, and, thoughtless as to consequences, he hastily 
approaches. He opens the door. His mother gazes at him 
but a moment, cries, "My son, my son," throws her arms 
fondly around his neck, and swoons away in his arms. And 
instances have occurred in which, from that swoon, there has 
been no recovery. 

Nor can it be said that such cases occur only among the 
weaker and more nervous portions of the human family. All 
are excitable. They may differ as to the objects which excite, 
and as to the degree of excitement produced by any definite 
object, but still, let the subject be one about which their 
minds are deeply interested, and all are susceptible of intense 
emotion. The grave and steady citizen, in times of great 
political discussion, when he supposes the welfare of his 
country is dependent on the result of an election, becomes 
so deeply interested that he loses his customary self-control. 
And when, at the close of a warmly contested canvass, his 
party triumphs, he tosses his cap wildly in the air, or joins in 
the loud exultation. 



360 SERMONS. 

History informs us that in the time of the great South Sea 
speculation in England many, overjoyed by their success, be- 
came insane. At the restoration of Charles II. a number of 
the nobility were so affected by the recovery of their titles 
and estates that they became diseased, and in a short time 
died. Leo X., one of the most renowned occupants of the 
Papal chair, was so rejoiced by a victory somewhat unexpect- 
edly gained over his enemies, that he sank beneath the excite- 
ment. The heir of Leibnitz, the celebrated mathematician, on 
finding that a chest, filled, as he supposed, with papers, con- 
tained a large quantity of gold, became so excited by the dis- 
covery that he was seized with a fatal disease of the heart. 
The celebrated Rittenhouse, Pennsylvania's earliest astrono- 
mer, was selected to observe the transit of Venus across the 
sun's disk in order that the correctness of many of the astro- 
nomical calculations might be tested. Having made all neces- 
sary arrangements and preparations he watched earnestly for 
the expected transit ; and when, at the calculated moment, he 
saw the dark boundary of the planet obscure the edge of the 
sun's disk he was so overcome with emotion that he swooned 
away, and his assistants were obliged to finish the observa- 
tions. The immortal Newton, when he approached towards 
the completion of those calculations which demonstrated his dis- 
covery of the great laws of nature, and which gave him an im- 
perishable name, and when he saw that his conjectures were 
about to be verified, was so deeply affected that he was obliged 
to leave to others the work of completing his calculations. 
Near the close of the revolutionary war the attention of Con- 
gress, and of the whole American people, was directed towards 
the armies of Washington and Cornwallis, and some move- 
ment was daily expected, having a powerful bearing upon our 
country's liberty. "When the messenger arrived, bringing the 
joyful intelligence that Cornwallis had surrendered, the door- 
keeper of Congress fell dead upon the floor of the hall. 

If such, then, be the influence of joyful emotions, when 
arising from temporal subjects, will the effect be diminished 
by adding the revelation of the unseen and eternal? Can 
emotions excited by a view of the majesty, holiness, wisdom, 



MANIFESTATION OF THE DIVINE GLORY. 361 

and compassion of the eternal Jehovah be less strong than 
those excited by considering a small portion of the work of 
his hands ? And is it unreasonable to expect that the truths 
of Christianity will produce deep and powerful religious emo- 
tion % If an astronomer shall swoon, and a Newton sink over- 
powered by the discovery of some of the laws by which the 
Deity governs the material world ; if Pope Leo could sink 
through joy over the triumph of his army, and a patriot die 
at the triumph of his country ; if the unexpected inheritance 
of a chest of gold, or the restoration of rank and estate could 
destroy the action of vital organs, what shall be said of him 
on whose vision should burst the revelation of the laws of the 
Deity in the moral world ; a full view of the riches of his 
grace in Christ Jesus, and of his amazing condescension and 
love in ffivino; his Son to die to save a rebellious world fast 
sinking into destruction, and by his offers of mercy, and in- 
fluences of his Spirit, raising feeble, sinful man to the throne 
of his glory, having first purified him from all iniquity ? If 
natural emotion may be so intense that the soul and body can- 
not unitedly subsist, well may it be said of such a manifesta- 
tion, " There shall no man see me and live." 

As a general inference from this subject we may notice 
what a sublime view is thus presented of the revelation con- 
tained in the Word of God. 

It is a system of truth ; in which, directly or indirectly, 
each separate truth leads to the great commanding truth of 
the being and attributes of God. This is the substance of 
revelation ; God displayed in creation, in government, and in 
mercy to man. All other statements are but as secondaries 
revolving around their primary. The whole of revelation is 
such a view of the character of God as shall attract men to 
virtue, to happiness, and to glory. And as the character of 
God is infinite in its perfections, it can never be perfectly 
comprehended by finite minds. So much of the truth may be 
readily embraced as shall set man free from the power of 
other attractions, but there is still an inexhaustible remainder. 
The greatest minds may here be forever engaged ; intellect 
may learn much ; prophets and kings may gaze with delight ; 



362 SERMONS. 

and even angels shall desire to look into these sublime truths ; 
but, like the parallel lines of the mathematician, there may be 
eternal approximation without perfect attainment. 

But revelation is not merely a system of sublime truth. It 
is truth so presented as to affect our sensitive nature. It is 
not abstract speculation alone that is employed ; our affections, 
our sympathies, are all enlisted. It is a system intended to 
operate upon man. It operates, first, by presenting the grand, 
the lofty, the majestic attributes of the divine character. And 
as the contemplation of great characters, the association with 
the great personages of earth, inspire the soul with lofty senti- 
ments and high purposes, so the revelation of God's majesty 
becomes a powerful cause of elevation to man. It is fixing in 
an immovable position a fulcrum which, more than the lever 
of Archimedes, shall move in elevating man towards the throne 
of God. It operates, secondly, by inspiring man with what is 
termed, technically, the sympathetic emotion of virtue. The 
performance of a brave, a noble, a patriotic, or a virtuous act 
makes us desire to do the same. And when God reveals him- 
self as a God of mercy, employing his omnipotence in acts of 
compassion, there is a voice that whispers to the heart through 
every such manifestation, "Be ye merciful, even as I am 
merciful." x\s that mercy is over all his works, as his sun- 
shine and showers fall upon all alike, as his Son suffered for 
all, so the compassion taught us is universal. The soul under 
such influences desires mercy upon all. It operates, thirdly, 
by exciting gratitude and joy for personal salvation, for par- 
don, for regeneration, and for adoption into the family of the 
Most High. The grateful soul is ready to exclaim, " What 
shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me!" 
"What am I, and what is my father's house," that I should 
thus be the subject of divine love ! And this gratitude and 
joy become vastly expanded by the reflection that similar fa- 
vor is shown to all our kindred and to all our race ; that our 
fathers were the subjects of mercy, and our children, and our 
children's children, shall inherit the same salvation ; that in 
every clime, tongue, kindred, and people may be experienced 
the same joys of pardoning mercy. At such a view we may 



MANIFESTATION OF THE DIVINE GLORY. 363 

well exclaim with the apostle, " O the depth of the riches 
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" A fourth effect 
of such a revelation is, that the soul desires to dwell constantly 
in the presence of God. In him is all fulness — the treasures 
of wisdom and knowledge for the intellect, of grace and 
mercy for the soul. He becomes the Alpha and the Omega 
to the believing heart ; and as the Deity grants such personal 
communion, the soul becomes refined and purified ; the world 
diminishes in value ; eternity, with all its spiritual blessed- 
ness, gradually unfolds before the moral vision, and the limit 
of joy is only found in the necessity of fitness for duties here. 
There is no limit to the fulness, glory, and sublimity of the 
divine character. There is no limit to the willingness of God 
to impart, for "He that spared not his own Son, but freely 
delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely 
give us all things ?" There is no limit of power as to the 
agent, " For we all with open face beholding as in a glass the 
glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from 
glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." The limit 
is onl} r found in the fact that humanity can best discharge the 
duties imposed on us here when those manifestations are not 
overwhelmingly grand. Under this limitation the spirit of 
the Bible is a spirit of joy, crying constantly to the true 
Christian, " Rejoice evermore," and "again I say, rejoice." 

That such are the effects of the manifestation of God's 
mercy, we are further warranted in believing from the history 
of distinguished individuals. Moses, when the name of the 
Lord was proclaimed and God's goodness passed before him, 
" made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and wor- 
shipped." He adored and reverenced. But in the midst of 
that adoration there was no such alarm as made Israel say, 
"Let not God speak with us;" his soul desired still the pres- 
ence of God, and his immediate prayer was, " Let my Lord, I 
pray thee, go among us." And such was the influence of the 
manifestations he received, that his face shone with such 
glory that the people could not look upon him unveiled ; or, 
in other words, the manifestations of goodness and of glory 
were carried to the utmost possible point at which his useful- 



364: SERMONS. 

ness to the people of Israel could remain. When Daniel was 
shown in prophetic vision the return of the captive Jews, and 
when the succession of empire was revealed, and the things that 
should happen in the latter days, he says, " There remained 
no strength in me ;" and before he was able to hear the whole 
prediction, the angel touched him to strengthen him. On the 
mount of transfiguration the disciples were so overwhelmed 
that " they knew not what they said," or did not fully see the 
impropriety of their request, and yet were so enchanted that 
they said, " Master, it is good for us to be here." The apostle 
to the Gentiles, who in the learning of his as;e and in strength 
of intellect had few, if any, equals, was so charmed with 
heavenly visions that whether he was "in the body or out of 
the body " he could not tell ; while the exiled apostle on the 
Isle of Patmos fell as one that was dead. 

What an unfailing source of comfort and joy is opened for 
the Christian in the revelation which God hath given ? His 
joy is not of this world, -it is in God. The world may change, 
but God changeth not. God's glory never faileth ; the Chris- 
tian's spring of happiness never runs dry. What a beautiful 
figure to represent this life from God is that employed in the 
description of the New Jerusalem : " A pure river of water of 
life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and 
of the Lamb !" Of this the purified partake. The kingly and 
mediatorial government of God ever furnishes the just spirits 
with increasing admiration of the glory of God. And on 
earth true Christian comfort is the same. It is of God ; it is 
in God. Property may vanish, friends may fail, health may 
be destroyed, but God still is immutably glorious, and from 
his throne still flows the pure river, clear as crystal, imparting 
life and joy to all that dwell upon its banks. It is a river of 
mercy, a river of grace, and he that drinketh of its water 
need never thirst again for the turbid streams of earthly 
joy. 

If, then, the effect of the manifestation of God's mercy and 
love be to elevate, to ennoble, and to gladden the heart of man, 
why should not our minds dwell upon the divine character ? 
We may not indeed "find out the Almighty to perfection," 



MANIFESTATION OF THE DIVINE GLORY. 3G5 

but we learn more and more of his glory. He did not chide 
Moses for his enlarged prayer, nor will he chide us for seek- 
ing the utmost knowledge and enjoyment of his grace. Chris- 
tianity alone offers man knowledge and joy which can perfectly 
fill his capacity, and for that knowledge and that joy un- 
ceasing effort should be made, and ceaseless prayer offered to 
the Most High. For this we may come boldly to the throne 
of grace. 

And if the limit of manifestation of mercy is found in the 
circumstances of the creature and not in God, who shall at- 
tempt to say what glorious enjoyment awaits the celestial 
citizen ? Or who shall fix the limits to the amount of blissful 
manifestation which may be made to the soul when about to 
be released from its earthly duties and connections? It was 
a favorite opinion of many of the Roman and Grecian philos- 
ophers and poets that the prophetic spirit came upon man in 
his dying moments. Aristotle, Socrates, Pythagoras, and even 
Homer, make allusions to it, and consider it in some manner 
connected with the soul's immortality ; and Xenophon speaks 
of the soul's appearing godlike in its last moments with the 
body. What may have given rise to this view among pagan 
nations we know not ; but among the Jews the dying patri- 
archs had the spirit of prophecy, and Jacob blessed his sons, 
" worshipping and leaning upon the top of his staff." The 
future opened upon their vision as earth was receding, and 
before its earthly departure the soul seemed as an inhabitant 
of another world. And is it not an increased manifestation 
of mercy that makes the " chamber where the good man 
meets his fate " seem to be " quite on the verge of heaven ?" 
May it not have been such manifestations that raised the mar- 
tyr's spirit above the power of the flame, and enabled him, 
with Stephen, to look " up steadfastly into heaven, and " to 
see " the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand 
of God ?" Is it not this that enables the dying Christian to 
exclaim, " O death, where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy 
victory?" 

Does it seem unreasonable that when life is about to be 
over, the Deity should withdraw his hand, and let such a view 



366 SERMONS. 

of his glory upon the mind, that the physical frame shall fall, 
and the unfettered spirit rise to the full enjoyment of beatific 
love ? Is it fanciful to suppose that this was the case with 
Moses ? His was a peculiar death. None but his God. was 
with him. 

Behold him, in fancy, as for the last time he addresses 
Israel. The elders and all the people are around him with 
their wives and their little ones. He sets before them the 
law of their God, and exhorts them to obedience. The spirit 
of prophecy comes upon him, and. he tells them of things that 
shall befall them in time to come, gives them his last patri- 
archal blessing, and. then, as if taking his last look, he cries 
out, "Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, O 
people saved by the Lord ?" 

He ascends Mount Nebo, towards the top of Pisgah. The 
veil has been taken from his face for the last time as he goes 
up to meet the Lord. Are his feelings those of dread or of 
joy? What should he dread? To be nearer Jehovah is 
his greatest joy, and he is to receive sublimer and more 
extensive visions of glory. Is not his prayer still, " I beseech 
thee, shew me thy glory " ? He stands upon the mountain's 
summit, and, as he gazes, there spreads out in all its rich- 
ness and in all its beauty the promised land, even "all the 
land of Gilead unto Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of 
Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the 
utmost sea." He looks again, and future scenes are before 
him. Upon Mount Moriah rises a magnificent building — a 
splendid temple. Its walls are of massive structure, its col- 
umns lofty and imposing, and the riches of Ophir are dis- 
played in its decorations. A wise king is on the throne of 
David, and millions of people repose in peace and prosperity 
beneath his sway. Within the court of the temple are the 
prescribed sacrifices, and devout worshippers turn towards the 
place of the mercy-seat. Again he prays, "I beseech thee, 
shew me thy glory." And in the wilderness of Judea, and 
along the populous coasts of Galilee, he beholds wandering 
"a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." At his ap- 
proach the sick and infirm draw near him. The blind see, the 



MANIFESTATION OF THE DIVINE GLORY. 367 

deaf hear, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are brought to life, 
and the poor hear the gospel of the kingdom. He recognizes 
him as the "Hope of Israel," a prophet like unto himself in 
mission, but as the morning star in glory. His soul exults 
within him as he sees fulfilled all the types and shadows of 
the ceremonies instituted by himself, and he worships his in- 
carnate Lord. Again he looks, and he stands by a cross ; 
upon it is the King of the Jews. The heavens are hung with 
blackness, and creation sympathizes with the divine sufferer. 
Then the agony is over; the earth has quaked ; the sun shines 
forth with his brilliant beams, as the triumphant exclama- 
tion is heard, " It is finished !" Again he prays, " I beseech 
thee, shew me thy glory." And he beholds an ascended Sav- 
iour; the angel flies through the midst of heaven proclaiming 
the gospel to man ; the Gentile hears as well as the Jew ; and 
from the north and south, from the east and west, come flow- 
ing to the cross the people of every tongue and kindred, 
while glorious light is shining upon the nations of the earth, 
and all mankind is blessed in the "seed of Abraham." Ec- 
stasy fills his soul, but he realizes that no man can see the face 
of God and live. His body falls upon the summit, and " the 
Lord buried him ;" while his spirit, amid visions of the future 
on the mountain-top, ascends to brighter bliss and glory in the 
celestial world. 

If such were the scene which we have attempted to describe, 
what bliss would there not be in such a death ! And may not 
the dying Christian, wherever he may be, even deep in the 
valley of humility, have bright visions and sweet whispers of 
love in his expiring moments ? May not the manifestation of 
God's mercy soothe his sorrows, and turn his sufferings into 
joy? "May I die the death of the righteous, and may my 
last end be like his !" 



XXL 

%t nut Distaurngeh. 



BE NOT DISCOURAGED. 

"He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till lie have set judgment in the 
earth, and the isles shall wait for his law." — Isaiah xlii. 4. 

That these words apply to the Lord Jesus Christ is indis- 
putable, because they are quoted by one of the evangelists as 
fulfilled in his person and mission. We have in them pre- 
sented to our thoughts three points : first, the great purpose 
which our Saviour has in view ; secondly, the fact that there 
are difficulties in the way of accomplishing his purpose; and, 
thirdly, the assurance that, notwithstanding the difficulties, he 
shall not fail nor be discouraged until his work shall be per- 
formed. 

The purpose which he has in view is to set judgment in the 
earth, even in the isles that shall wait for his law. By the ex- 
pression, setting judgment in the earth, we understand that the 
object of Christ was to promote the spread of truth, the reign 
of righteousness. His mission will be performed only when 
the truth which he came to reveal shall be diffused to the 
ends of the world ; when the gospel shall be proclaimed in the 
hearing of every human being; when all institutions shall be 
conformed to the precepts of the gospel ; when the laws by 
which men are governed shall be founded on justice and 
equity ; when those who administer the laws shall administer 
them in the fear of the Lord ; when there shall be everywhere 
security for person and property ; when the associations of 
men shall be controlled by right principles ; when men shall 
love each other from a consciousness that God loves them, 
that they are members of one brotherhood — a brotherhood 
not confined to towns or cities or the limits of the kingdom 
or state, but existing throughout the whole earth ; when the 
sons of men shall be one family, who shall acknowledge one 



372 SERMONS. 

Father, and shall be united in reverence for God through our 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

His mission thus is to remove evil from the earth, to spread 
abroad peace and truth ; and to intensify the expression it is 
said he not only sets judgment in the earth, but that "the 
isles shall wait for his law." There shall not be a rocky island 
in the bosom of the deep on which a lonely dweller shall pitch 
his tent but he shall hear the name of Jesus ; there shall not 
be a valley or deep gorge that shall not be penetrated by 
the light of the gospel. And if there be to-day some spot sur- 
rounded with polar ice, which the adventurous navigator has 
not yet found, or if there be one in the far-off South Sea, 
detached from the clusters that are known, it shall be visited ; 
for he has come to set judgment in the earth, and the isles are 
waiting for his law. This is his mission ; this is the work to 
be performed. 

But there are difficulties which lie in the way of the per- 
formance of this work. How shall the kingdom of Christ be 
extended to the ends of the earth ? How shall it so penetrate 
society as to subdue the hearts of men, and make them willing 
to form all their associations on the principles of righteous- 
ness — to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly before 
God? How can the wild passions that agitate the human 
race be subdued? How shall the grasping hand of avarice be 
restrained ? How shall the selfishness of man be taken away 
and he learn to love his neighbor as himself? How shall this 
widening sweep of the gospel encircle the whole earth ? 

The first difficulty seems to arise from the fact that, to us, 
judging from the human standpoint, the agencies employed 
for this purpose are not adequate to produce the result. When 
we look for great results, we expect to see great preparations 
made. In the struggle of nations, armies are marshalled ; 
vast amounts of ammunition are stored ; missiles of war, 
swords, bayonets, are accumulated ; and nations will not set out 
upon the path of conquest until they have, or fancy they have, 
proper preparation. Men in social life will not undertake 
large enterprises unless they have what seem to be adequate 
means. They engage in political contests; they must have 



BE NOT DISCOURAGED. 373 

money ; the aid of the press must be secured ; society must be 
influenced and controlled. Schools are to be established ; for 
this purpose edifices must be erected, teachers must be en- 
gaged, plans must be furnished. But when we turn to the 
agencies which are selected for the establishment of Christ's 
kingdom, how feeble do they appear ! ]STo armies were main- 
tained ; no materials of war were collected ; no press lent its 
aid; no schools of philosophy gave their support; no man 
upon the throne ; not one of the powers of earth was will- 
ing to assist. But Christ began his work by calling around 
him a few humble men ; and then, as if to set at defiance all 
the traditions of the w r orld, he taught his followers that force 
was never to be employed. He uttered the declaration, " all 
they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." He 
declared : " My kingdom is not of this world ;" " The kingdom 
of God cometh not with observation." It is not, said one of 
his followers, to be found in meats and drinks — in outward 
observances; it is spiritual — peace, love, joy in the Holy 
Ghost. And it is said of him, in this passage, " He shall not 
ciy, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street." 
He is not to stimulate the passions of men; he preaches no 
crusade which arrays nation against nation, or community 
against community ; and yet he is going onward to conquer 
the earth. No martial band parades the streets, no roar of 
cannon announces the victory, but he moves on quietly, steadi- 
ly. Nay, so gentle seems to be the movement that it is said : 
" The bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax 
shall he not quench; he shall bring forth judgment unto 
truth." 

There is a meaning in this figure to me which possibly is a 
little different from the ordinary interpretation. I see Christ 
conquering the world. Where armies move, they trample 
down the growing crops ; they sweep away the habitations of 
men ; the people flee from their homes, and the house that was 
lighted with joy is desolate; but as Christ goes forward con- 
quering the world, even the stalk which is half broken, or 
that the slightest breath of heaven might prostrate to the 
ground, he will not break, he moves so gently. And if there 



374 SERMONS. 

be in yon humble cottage the little flaxen wick just lighted 
so that the smoke is rising from it with scarcely a flame, it 
is not to be extinguished. His mission is not to spread des- 
olation, or to extinguish what hope, or comfort, or joy there 
may be in the world. " The bruised reed shall he not break, 
and the smoking flax shall he not quench ; he shall bring 
forth judgment unto truth." 

Now, I say, the first difficulty is in the way this is to be done 
— that Christ is to conquer and yet not use earthly means? 
Is preaching the Word to convert the world % How are the 
declarations pertaining to Christ to change the habits of men? 
There is the savage, the cannibal, the man sunk in vice. 
Tell him that eighteen hundred years ago a man died in Ju- 
dea on the cross. Is that to change him ? Tell him God 
made him ; tell him there are appliances provided to Christian- 
ize this earth, and show bright views of heaven. "Will these 
change him ? We who have been accustomed to Christianity 
ma} T , to some extent, take in this idea, but the world never 
took it in. There are armies marshalled, facing each other. 
Tell them the truths of the gospel. Will they lay down their 
arms ? Shall war cease % Yet this is the tenor of the proph- 
ecy. How inadequate seem the agencies ! 

There is another cause of discouragement. It is that the 
conquest, even to the friends of Christ, seems to be so slow. 
Since he appeared eighteen hundred years and more have 
passed away. How little has been done ! Look at China 
with its multiplied millions ! See India ! Look at Africa ! 
Look at the islands of the sea ! How little effect the gospel 
has had among them ! Come to civilized lands ; while the 
gospel is heard, how little influence has it had ! What cor- 
ruption is there in high places ! Look at society ! Even 
among men who pretend to be Christians, how much selfish- 
ness is there ! How much covetousness ! See how wicked- 
ness reigns in the world ! Yet the ages are passing. Shall 
the world be conquered ? Can the gospel succeed ? 

Then, again, a third cause of discouragement is that the men 
who profess to be Christians are such imperfect specimens 
of Christianity. Christ selected twelve apostles ; what were 



BE NOT DISCOURAGED. 375 

they ! In the hour of danger one of them cursed and swore. 
When Jesus rose from the dead, another doubted. See their 
selfishness! Trying, some of them, to be greater than the 
rest ; wanting, some of them, to sit at his right hand, and 
others at his left. How little idea they had of the purity and 
spirituality of his kingdom ! They longed for a temporal 
power. Take the Church organizations. The leading men 
of the Church, how inefficient ! The ministers, how little 
spiritual power among them? How little control over the 
hearts of the people ! Where are the burning thoughts ? 
Where are the captivating arguments? Where is the elo- 
quence of speech? There is so little strength in the pulpit; 
is it any wonder the Church is discouraged ? And there is 
so little efficiency in the Church. Go through it ; go into 
your stores and offices. How little is said of Christ ! How 
little prayer is offered ! How little faith is manifested ! 
Is it not enough, in turn, to discourage the ministry ? And 
they say, What can the Church accomplish? How little con- 
fidence that the work can be done ! We assemble in our 
congregations, but we have no thought that the city can be 
conquered? Vice is running down our streets; degradation 
has its home in our garrets and cellars. Ah ! well, if it were 
confined to garrets and cellars ; but vice, in its most hideous 
forms, has its home in your brown -stone houses, your cost- 
ly residences. Where is there faith that this can be changed ? 
All this audience would be taken by surprise if the thought 
were to be uttered that this city could be converted to God 
in twelve months ; that every house where intoxicating drinks 
are sold could be closed, and every chamber whose door leads 
to death could be vacated. We could not believe it. " Never- 
theless, when the Son of man shall come, shall he find faith in 
the earth." 

Then there is so much opposition to be overcome — in 
heathen lands the opposition of heathendom ; in Christian 
lands the opposition that arises out of the selfishness and cor- 
ruption of the human heart. Men are not willing to submit 
to the law of God. Here is one of the chief discouragements. 
If we were to undertake to spread a system of philosophy or 



376 SERMONS. 

a form of civilization which was not contrary particularly 
to human propensities, it would be difficult to establish such 
a system all through the earth. It has not yet been done. 
Nation differs from nation. But when we offer a relig- 
ion which strikes directly at the tendencies of human nat- 
ure, which opposes that which the heart desires and loves, 
how can it succeed ? It has an enemy in every bosom, a foe 
in every human being. How can it conquer? Is it possible 
to mould the hearts of the people to love the living God ? 
See the persecutions, see the combinations of men to spread 
unbelief. Look abroad to-day. Take the literature. How 
obscene much of it is, and how poisoning ! Read the scoffs 
and sneers at evangelical piety. See how deeply interwoven, 
in all that affects the public mind, is a hatred to pure Chris- 
tianity — so much so that, if a man dares to stand on the plat- 
form of evangelical Christianity he is thought to be singular ; 
and the man who will be a true Christian, a living, earnest 
man in his shop, his business, everywhere, who talks of Jesus 
and the triumphs of the cross as he talks of business and trade, 
he is a singular man, and the world wonders at him. He may 
sing in his own house, or in the church of God ; he may pray 
in his closet, or in his family, or church ; but to carry thoughts 
of religion into business life, and reveal them in his associa- 
tions with men, the world will not bear it. " They that will 
live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 

Now, is it any wonder that the Church should be discour- 
aged, that good men should sometimes think Christianity a 
failure, should think that some new appliances must be used 
— some change of base or front — something done in order to 
give fresh power to Christianity ? Acting upon this, men are 
trying if they cannot eliminate the offensive doctrines of the 
cross from the Bible. Here, for instance, we have them tell- 
ing us that it is not necessary to believe that Christ died to 
take away sin ; that the human heart is not so very sinful 
after all ; that there is a great deal of good in man, and that 
all we need is just to develop that goodness, and God is so 
merciful that he will accept it. They take away the offence 
of the cross; and wherever that is done, it is found to take 



BE NOT DISCOURAGED. 377 

away the power of the gospel. There are others who would 
court the world by avoiding some of the usages of Christianity 
— dressing it up in something like fashionable attire, making 
it less antagonistic to the interests and passions of men, hop- 
ing that thereby it may gain power. 

This feeling of discouragement is nothing new. If you 
and I share it, it is no more than has been from the beginning. 
After Abraham had the promise that his seed should be as the 
sands of the sea, as the stars of heaven, for multitude, long, 
weary years passed ; he had been called from Mesopotamia, 
had wandered in Canaan, had gone down into Egypt, and 
when many years had rolled over his head, there was then 
only the young heir in his family. Doubtless he sometimes 
felt discouraged. Time is an element with men, but not with 
God. Moses was discouraged when he led the Israelites. 
How often was he ready to give up his undertaking ! " Blot 
me, I pray thee, out of thy book," he prayed, when he pleaded 
for the Israelites ; they must not be destroyed. See, at the 
very base of Sinai, while yet the cloud lingered on the top 
and the voice of God had scarce ceased to fall upon their 
ears, they make the golden calf, and cry out : " These be thy 
gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of 
Egypt !" No wonder Moses was disheartened, and cast the 
tables from his hands as though the whole plan of God were 
a failure; but God led the Israelites onward. A generation 
might die; the strong men who wielded their strength in 
their swords might fall ; but the little children should grow 
up and go forward to possess the land. Sometimes they fled 
before their enemies, and Moses was alarmed, but God gave 
them victory again. We trace the lives of the prophets, 
and we find that some of them were called w T eeping proph- 
ets. " Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a 
fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the 
slain of the daughter of my people!" — ready to give up, 
the cause all gone. See Elijah, hiding himself, and cry- 
ing : " They have thrown down thine altars, and slain thy 
prophets with the sword ; and I, even I only am left." Tie 



378 SERMONS. 

left me seven thousand that have-not bowed the knee to 
Baal." So, too, the disciples of Christ lost hope. Trace 
the history of the Church from that period to this, and, 
age after age, what discouragement ! Men have said : " The 
cause is gone." Difficulties, failures, have been on the human 
side; and if there be only the human side men ought to be 
discouraged. There is nothing in its appearance, there is 
nothing in its methods, there is nothing in human associa- 
tions that can, depending on our resources alone, make Chris- 
tianity triumph in the world. 

But while- men may be disheartened, it is said of Christ: 
" He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have set judg- 
ment in the earth." There is presented to us the sublime 
view — I love to think of it — of one on the throne, by the right 
hand of the Father, sitting down, expecting, until his enemies 
be made his footstool. Could our vision penetrate the courts 
of the Almighty this morning we should see the Lord Jesus 
waiting calmly for the conversion of the earth, sure of the re- 
sult. Is there anything strange in this? Can he not wait? 
After he gave the promise that he would come, he waited 
four thousand years ; he waited for the fulness of time ; waited 
till men had exhausted their plans ; waited until the world was 
weary with attempting to conquer human evils and human 
errors ; waited until the wisest philosophers had taught, until 
the most eloquent orators had spoken, until the strongest 
governments had tried their schemes ; waited until Egypt had 
risen in learning, and then sunk to ruin ; waited until Babylon 
and all her glory had perished, until Greece with all her phi- 
losophy and arts was a failure ; waited until Rome, seated on 
her seven hills, and grasping the known world, had gathered 
her poets, painters, and philosophers, and yet, in the midst of 
her glory, was rushing headlong to ruin, and poor humanity 
was uttering the cry : " What must we do to be saved ?" 

When man could do no more, Christ came — came not in 
regal pomp, came not as man would expect — came a babe in 
Bethlehem ; laid himself down in the lowest station of human 
society ; sent up his infant cries from where the children of 
poverty were heard uttering their complaints, that he might 



' 



BE NOT DISCOURAGED. 379 

be ready to take them in his arms, and carry them np towards 
God. And if he waited four thousand years, till man had 
tried all he could do, is it strange that now, having prepared 
for the elevation of us all, he can w T ait to see this earth re- 
deemed, as lie waited from the time he said, "Lo, I come," 
and Calvary was ever before him ? There is something sub- 
lime to me in the thought of Christ waiting calmly on his 
throne. The sun, that shines in the heavens, rises over scenes 
of horror and of woe. No matter what may be here, the sun 
shines on, calmly, perpetually, pouring forth its light ; and so 
Christ, the great Sun of Righteousness, sits on his throne, and 
there come from him the beams of light that are shining upon 
the race, penetrating our hearts. On and on and ever, from 
him, is this eternal efflux of radiant glory. 

But then he is waiting thus calmly and confidently because 
there is an agency at work which is adequate to bring about 
the great results. " Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine 
elect in whom my soul delighteth ; I have put my Spirit upon 
him ; he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles." God 
has given the Holy Spirit an unseen influence, that is to per- 
form this work. Men are loath to estimate the force of the 
invisible, and yet what lessons God teaches us from it ! ¥e 
measure by what we see, by what we hear ; w T e are governed 
in our opinions by material forms, exhibitions of material 
power; we w r ant something to move the world: w r e think of 
the earthquake's tread, the streams of lava, the waves of the 
ocean, the tornado or tempest, the shock of armies. Some- 
thing like these we are waiting for, but God works invisi- 
bly in consummating his plans. When we scan the universe, 
the greatest power is always the invisible power. Look at 
the large bodies which move through the world. There is a 
power that propels the cannon-ball, that causes vast bomb- 
shells to take their elliptic flight, and then to explode. We 
calculate it ; but, oh ! the power that sends worlds like arrows 
whirling through heaven ! Why, it is said to-day that our 
largest telescopes give us such a sweep of the sky that the 
light must have been travelling from the most distant bodies 
for a million of years, and some say more, to reach our eyes. 



380 SERMONS. 

The universe is full of these bodies. Where is the power that 
moves them ? It is an unseen power ; it is the power of God 
working invisibly that keeps these vast globes in their places 
of motion. What is it makes that cannon-ball fall to the 
ground ? What is it raises the sea and causes the tide to flow 
around the world % What is it keeps the moon making her 
ceaseless flight around this earth ? You call it gravitation. 
What is it that gives firmness and stability to all that is of the 
earth ? It is invisible, but it is potent. It is so all about us. 
Why, the morning sunbeams that fall so gently on the eye- 
lid they scarcely waken the sleeper, have power to raise the 
largest pile of rocks. The monument of Bunker Hill was 
thought to be immovable. Yet, when a few years ago a cord 
was let down from the centre of the summit of that pile, men 
were surprised to find that the point marked by the cord in 
the evening was not the point marked in the morning. They 
found the great mass was shifted in some way. How was it ? 
When the morning light so gently fell from the east upon the 
face of the monument the little rays of heat, each one almost 
imperceptible, expanded the rock, and one side swayed tow- 
ards the sun ; and when the rays fell upon the southern side 
they moved that side ; and on the western part they changed 
back the vast pile from the position which it held. Who 
could have thought it ! Yet those sunbeams were shifting 
the vast masses of granite. So God is working upon us, teach- 
ing us, instructing us how the spiritual may operate on a hu- 
man heart ; and if God's spirit, his light and truth, be given 
to man, shall it not be that these unseen influences may 
change, may correct, may control, may purify, may lift up ? 

Then, again, not only is it because Christ seizes all these 
agencies, but it seems to me it is his peculiar province to show 
that the work to be accomplished he does himself. I do not 
think he desires weakness in human agency. I do not think 
he wishes those of us who are in the Church to be imperfect 
and defective ; and yet, somehow, out of our weakness he 
proves his glory; from the very fact that we are poor and 
feeble, and yet the work is performed, he takes the glory to 
himself; and he says: "I am a jealous God; I will not give 



BE NOT DISCOUKAGED. 381 

my glory to another." I know not how it is with others, but, 
as for myself, the record of infirmities and weaknesses and 
errors of Christian people in other ages has sometimes given 
me more comfort than many other parts of Scripture. Had 
all the early disciples been great men, had they made no mis- 
takes, I should have been afraid, almost, to call myself a Chris- 
tian ; and, looking around me, I should have lost faith ; but 
when I see the twelve men, the picked men of the world, the 
men whom the Father gave to Christ that he might found his 
kingdom, his counsellors, prime-ministers, so frail, of like pas- 
sions with ourselves, making mistakes, having the weaknesses 
of the human heart, I am comforted, and I say: "If Christ 
saved such men, he is able to save me; and if he used such 
men for his glory, he may, in his infinite mercy, use me ; and 
if a man who yesterday denied him, can to-morrow, or even 
in forty days, stand up and preach a sermon under which 
three thousand shall be cut to the heart, may not IV Christ 
thus shows his glory in the midst of our weakness. lie sends 
men to work, but he leaves them not alone; he sends out 
spiritual forces that make up for their deficiencies, and men, 
though not eloquent, may preach with the Holy Ghost sent 
down from heaven. 

As to opposition, it seems to me that Christ rejoices in op- 
position. It may seem to be a strong expression, but if there 
were no opposition there would be scarcely any triumph. lie 
who sits upon his throne, waiting and looking, it seems to me 
rather glories — if I may use that expression — in the fact that 
the combined resistance of earth and the combined resistance 
of hell are not able to stop the progress of his kingdom. E"ot 
only so, but he uses them to advance his plans. Let Kenan 
write the life of Jesus, and try to prove him a mere man, and 
it only brings out hundreds of pens that portray the beauty 
and excellency and divinity of Christ. Let Colenso attack 
the accuracy of the Old Testament Scriptures ; his assaults 
only set men to more acute and more accurate criticism : we 
find where there have been mistakes; we examine history 
more critically and the Bible more carefully. These attacks 
have reacted, and the combinations of men against Christ 



382 SERMONS. 

have brought out the power of Christianity. Unbelief and 
wickedness have banded together, but we have seen Christ 
sitting on his throne. " The Lord shall laugh at them ; he 
shall have them in derision ; he shall break them in pieces 
like a potter's vessel." Let the hurricane come — the tempest 
that prostrates the hills, the Church still stands. Let the over- 
flowing billows which sweep away all else come, the rock on 
which the Church stands is unmoved, and, dwelling in the 
Church, we sing: " God is in the midst of her; she shall not 
be moved. God shall help her, and that right early." 

God allows men to be marshalled, lets the armies come, lets 
all the means wicked men can gather and combine unite to 
meet him. Calmly he waits for the onset, knowing he can 
break them. He lets men rally their opposition ; lets them 
combine in every possible mode against his kingdom and pow- 
er, and yet he can sweep them away in a moment. To us in 
these last days is held up as a chart for exhibition all that 
men could do. China has stood by our side for nearly two 
thousand years to try what her intellectual forms and civili- 
zation can accomplish, and, after all, the result is such that 
Christian people are to-day afraid of China's civilization, be- 
cause it degrades. All forms of error have had their chance 
to develop power, and yet how weak are they compared with 
the civilization that grows under Christ's cross ! 

"When I think of this triumph of Christ over everything, 
and how he permits the forms of opposition to gather against 
him, I am sometimes carried back to the cross. I look at the 
results of his teaching. He ought to have had a grateful peo- 
ple around him. He had opened their eyes, unstopped their 
ears, healed their diseases. Yet, when he was arrested in the 
garden and taken to the judgment-hall, he was left alone. 
The people were discouraged. Those who, to some extent, 
loved him — his disciples — were discouraged. The earth was 
discouraged, and groaned. The sun was discouraged, and 
covered his face with a veil. The great recess of the temple 
was thrown open as the curtain was rent. Darkness settled 
upon the world. Then Christ said: "It is finished." He 
had laid the corner-stone. He was about to build the edifice 



BE NOT DISCOURAGED. 383 

of salvation, and as men dig far down, so lie went down in 
sorrow and agony ; lie reached the deepest depth, and laid 
the corner-stone of our salvation in the presence of all the 
enmities of earth and hell, and, when he had laid it, he 
said : " It is finished." There is the corner-stone laid. Thank 
God it stands forever. Earth and hell cannot prevail against 
it. He was not discouraged. His plans had not failed. 'Not 
a single thing in all he had arranged had given way. The 
work was done, and yet man was discouraged. But the third 
morning was coming. I have sometimes thought if there were 
a moment of discouragement in the creation deeper and dark- 
er than others, it was just before that morning dawned. But 
God looks down. He who was dead rises — the great, eternal 
One. He himself brought life and power; he bursts the 
bars of the tomb, and rises triumphant. Christ had not failed. 
He conquered death and the grave, and the earth caught the 
sound of joy which the angels sang, and glory to God and 
peace and good-will among men have been re-echoing through 
the world ever since. 

Now that he is gone up to heaven, now that all power is 
given him, now that all thrones are subject to him, now that 
he sits on the circle of the heavens, he cannot fail, and lie 
sees how all things are moving to bring about the mighty 
triumph of his kingdom. And if he is not discouraged, 
should we be ? There may be dark hours, but they precede 
the light of the morning. There may be periods of weak- 
ness, but they precede the exhibition of strength. There 
may be perfect calms, but they precede the breath of the 
whirlwind. There may be times when all human resources 
seem to fail; it is that God may be honored and glorified. 
Oh! we need more faith. We should not be disheartened. 
Our Saviour is to subdue the world unto himself — and it is 
ours simply to go forward, to take his word, perform his will; 
to speak, to live, to labor, to love for him ; and love shall sub- 
due all things. Oh ! there is a glorious day coming ; it is a 
little in advance; you and I may not live to see it. I know 
not how, but he will set judgment in the earth ; the isles shall 
wait for his law. 



XXII. 



THE SPIEIT OF PROPHECY * 

''For tlie testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." — Rev. xix. 10. 

The apostle who was favored with the visions recorded in 
this book says in another place : " Beloved, now are we the 
sons of God, and it doth not jet appear what we shall be : 
but we know that, when lie shall appear, we shall be like him ; 
for we shall see him as he is." I have often wondered how 
far we shall be like Christ; to what extent this mortality 
may bear the stamp of immortality ; how far this humanity 
may be made to resemble incarnate divinity; and it has 
seemed to me that we have a glimpse of the answer in this 
passage. 

At the opening of the book of Revelation, Christ appeared to 
the apostle John, and when John saw Christ he fell at his feet 
as one that was dead. There was one sent to unveil to the 
apostle future scenes. He beheld strange movements in the 
heavens above and in the earth beneath — a strange series of 
disasters and triumphs; but out of the whole the issue was 
glorious. He had just listened to a song of praise, at first be- 
ginning gently, and then swelling like the waves of the sea, 
until the triumphant strain culminated in the chorus: "Al- 
leluia : for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." And then the 
revelator, he who is showing the visions to the apostle, said, 
" These are the true sayings of God ;" and writes John : "I fell 
at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou 
do it not. I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren that 
have the testimony of Jesus." What feelings of John led 
him to fall at the angel's feet ? Some, in critically rendering 
this passage, have said that John could not have intended to 

* Preached at the dedication of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Atlanticville, 
N. J., Sunday afternoon, August 8th, 1869. 



388 SERMONS. 

offer worship ; yet this being says to him, " See thou do it 
not; I am thy fellow-servant;" as though John actually 
designed to offer to him homage. And again 3 after another 
glorious scene, it is said : " And I John saw these things 
and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell 
down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed 
me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it 
not : for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the 
prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book : 
worship God." Now, can it be that even John, who had 
leaned on the Saviour's bosom, who now beheld his glory in 
that sacred isle, saw one of his fellow -servants so transfig- 
ured, so transformed into the image of the Master, that he was 
unable to distinguish between what he had witnessed of the 
incarnate form of Christ and the holy messenger? He fell 
at his feet to worship. May it not "have been that the grand 
thoughts which this enlightened, I might almost say trans- 
formed, ministrant received, and the sublime vision of the 
great work in which he was engaged, made him appear like 
unto Deity himself? If it were so, then might not we be- 
come like Christ, seeing him as he is? 

When the day shall come that we behold his purposes with 
open face, when the thoughts that burn in the bosom of Je- 
hovah shall burn in these hearts of ours, when we shall see the 
ends of his government, and the plans which he carries out, 
and when we shall be sent in our turn to unveil these to oth- 
ers, may it not be that these grander thoughts shall so swell in 
our hearts and illumine us, that not only our face shall shine 
like the face of Moses, so that it must be covered with a veil, 
but our whole being shall be transformed into the likeness of 
the Son of God? Be this as it may, the announcement here 
is one of deep interest : " The testimony of Jesus is the spirit 
of prophecy." The word "prophecy" is used in two signifi- 
cations in the New Testament: first, in the ordinary sense of 
foretelling future events, and, secondly, in what might be 
called a peculiar New Testament sense of explaining and en- 
forcing the word of God. Thus Paul exhorts the Church at 
Corinth to covet earnestly the best gifts, to prophesy ; and the 



THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY. 389 

whole Church, it is said, were in the habit of prophesying: 
the men with their heads uncovered, and the women with 
their heads covered. "He that prophesieth," saith the apos- 
tle, "speaketh unto men, to edification, to exhortation, and 
comfort." So that the word "prophecy" is used in two dif- 
ferent significations, and in botli of them we think there are 
many reasons why the declaration in this text is strictly true: 
" The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." The 
word "testimony" here is the same as witness, and it might 
be rendered, without violating any principle of propriety, " for 
a witness of Jesus, or a witnessing to Jesus, is the spirit of 
prophecy." 

Kow, in the first signification of the word prophecj 7 , we 
may say that the whole of the predictions of the Old Testa- 
ment were directed to Christ as a centre and an object. " To 
him gave all the prophets witness," and the entire volume of 
Revelation, from the garden of Eden to the close of the last 
prophetic utterance, was either directly or indirectly a testi- 
mony for Jesus. In the garden of Eden, the first prophecy 
was given : " The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's 
head." There, to our sorrowing parents, that great word of 
comfort was a testimony of Jesus — an announcement of his 
coming; and as the ages unfolded there were brighter 
glimpses of the person and the character of Christ. He was 
revealed to the ancient patriarchs. Abraham saw his day, it 
is said, and was glad — saw that day, doubtless, when with bur- 
dened heart he had travelled from his Hebrew home to Mount 
Moriah. There attending, while the early light sparkled on 
the summit, a little altar was erected, and the wood laid there- 
on, when Isaac, trembling, said, " Behold the fire and the wood, 
but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?" and Abraham's 
swelling heart replied : " My son, God, will provide himself a 
lamb." There, on that ground, where more than two thou- 
sand years after Christ was offered as a sacrifice for sin, Abra- 
ham beheld the day of Christ, and his heart was glad; a pro- 
phetic view was given to him of the coming Saviour. And 
so, too, when Jacob was dying, leaning on the top of his staff, 
he worshipped ; his eyes were opened, and he beheld the Mes- 



390 SEKMONS. 

siahi coming. He had looked in vain through the posterity 
of his elder son — he had seen them passing away and scattered 
among the nations of the earth ; but when Judah, his fourth 
son, came, he saw the lineage springing from him ; thrones 
and kingdoms at his command, and then those thrones and 
kingdoms crumbling. There was light sparkling in his dying 
eye, and he said : " The sceptre shall not depart from Judah 
till Shiloh come ; and to him shall the gathering of the peo- 
ple be." He saw the day of Christ. 

Moses, too, had visions of Christ's coming when he said : 
" A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto thee like 
unto me; unto him ye shall hearken." And so as we de- 
scend along the line. What glimpses of him were given to 
David ! how he sang of Calvary ! how he beheld the cruci- 
fixion and the ascension ! and with what glorious notes does 
he sing of the future triumph of Christ ! And Isaiah saw 
him led to the slaughter, saw him sharing the grave of the 
rich, saw him dying among the wicked, saw him rising tri- 
umphant, and saw that he w T ould be satisfied with the travail 
of his soul. And thus it is the prophets, in their succession, 
give witness of Christ. 

Not only was the word of prophecy a testimony of Christ, 
but the very sacrifices and offerings speak of him. The lamb 
slain told of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world 
to wash away sin. Did manna fall from heaven ? Jesus says : 
"I am the bread that cometh down from heaven." Did water 
flow out of the rock? The apostle says that rock was Christ. 
Did the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night 
hang over the congregation ? Christ with his glory gave that 
shadow and that brightness. He led them as the angel of 
the covenant by the hand of Moses and of Aaron. All the 
ceremonies of the law and all the symbols of the Old Testa- 
ment spoke of the Saviour who was to come; so that in this 
respect the testimony of Jesus was the spirit of prophecy. 
Then, again, prophecies, which w T ere diverse in age and in 
manner, like visions given here and there, become realized 
in the person of Jesus Christ. Thus, one prophet told he 
should come of David's family ; another predicted he should 



THE SPIKIT OF PROPHECY. 391 

be born in Bethlehem ; another foretold that at the end of 
seventy-and-two weeks he should be cut off, not for himself, 
but for the sins of his people ; so that the family, the place, 
and the time in which this Messiah was to come were all fore- 
told, but by different prophets, and under different circum- 
stances. And so, also, the characteristics of that Messiah, his 
being the child, the son, the worker of miracles, the opener 
of the eyes of the blind, the healer of the sick, the mute 
sufferer of all indignities, and the glorious and triumphant 
breaker of the bonds of the grave — all these were foretold of 
Christ, and all of them gloriously meet in his person. He 
was the theme of ancient song ; prophets, poets, and psalm- 
ists hymned his glory, and the old patriarchs rejoiced when 
they beheld him as the coming sacrifice for sin. Thus it was 
that the spirit of prophecy was a witness for Jesus. Taking 
up these prophecies, Paul reasoned vigorously and strongly, 
and convinced the people that Jesus was the Christ. 

Not only was this the case with the prophecies directly 
speaking of him, but the predictions in regard to the nations 
of the earth also had reference to Christ — predictions about 
Palmyra, about Egypt, Tyre, Sidon, Nineveh, Babylon, Da- 
mascus, and Idumea. All these prophecies had an indirect 
relation to Christ, for in this system of government God re- 
vealed himself as preparing the world for the coming of his 
Son ; and the spread of civilization and the growth of litera- 
ture and art were but so many steps in the stairway that was 
to lead to the great hall in which the glory of Christ was to 
be displayed. So that whether the voice sounds among the 
ruins of Egypt, of Babylon, or of Nineveh, whether it tells of 
the rise or the fall of nations — in all cases it is still a testi- 
mony for Jesus. It prepared mankind for his coming; and 
God was shaping the courses of the nations of the earth until 
there should be an empire controlling the civilized world; 
until there should be one language spread all over that em- 
pire, until there was a fulness of time in which Christ should 
come and speak to the nations of the earth. And, as we open 
the New Testament prophecies — though they, too, in their 
sweep, embrace kingdoms, and tell of the rise and fall of dy- 



392 SERMONS. 

nasties, and point to kingdom after kingdom rising and pass- 
ing away, yet they are preparatory to the coming again of the 
Messiah, the spread of his kingdom, and the diffusion of his 
truth. In our own day we are witnessing to some extent the 
fulfilment of these prophecies. We have been living in a 
great cycle of events. We have read in history of some of 
these changes and have seen others with our own eyes ; and 
they are foretold in the book of Revelation with more or less 
clearness — not so that vain curiosity may be satisfied, yet that 
in the end we may behold how wonderfully God has been reign- 
ing among the nations of the earth ; but in all those changes it 
is simply the coming of Christ's kingdom that has been fore- 
told. The years of persecution and of trial that the Chris- 
tian Church has passed through were also predicted, and in 
foretelling these the testimony was still a testimony for Jesus, 
for it showed how, in the midst of all the persecution, the 
Church could stand unharmed. 

Look at the strong metaphors in the book of Revelation ! 
The sun is darkened, the moon is turned into blood, the 
stars fall from heaven, an earthquake shakes our globe, and 
the seas are smitten as with blood — all signifying wonderful 
agitations and convulsions. Mysterious visions pass before 
the eye of the apostle, revealing the persecuting power that 
should rise against the Christian Church ; and yet showing 
through all, that, though the sun might be darkened for a 
time, he should shine again ; though the moon might be shorn 
of its beams, it should be all lustrous again ; though the earth 
should be shaken, it would but prepare the way of the Lord ; 
though the seas might be smitten for a season, they should yet 
become highways for our God ; that the Church could endure 
the power of persecution, and that the very gates of hell 
should not be permitted to prevail against it. It is thus, I 
say, that the prophecies of the New Testament are still but 
testimonies for Jesus. I never read that grand panoramic 
scene in the book of Revelation without being wonderfully 
impressed. One is beheld issuing as a conqueror, and a host 
read} 7 for war follow after him. The scene is changed, and 
there are lightnings, thunders, earthquakes, and commotions; 



THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY. 393 

but after all these have passed away the heavens are opened 
again, and one comes forth riding on a white horse, with a 
crown of glory on his brow. He is attended by his people in 
white robes, and then rises the triumphal song, " the king- 
doms of the earth have become the kingdoms of our Lord 
and his Christ ;" showing that out of and after all agitations 
Christ shall reign King of kings and Lord of lords. And 
though we may not know how it is to be accomplished, 
though we may not know the hour or the agency, yet we can 
stand secure amidst the commotions of earth, the persecutions 
of men, and all the power that can be brought against the 
Church of the living God, knowing that in the end Christ 
shall gloriously triumph. He shall laugh at kings and have 
them in derision. There will be a new heaven and a new 
earth, wherein Christ shall reign ; a glorious firmament shall 
be revealed, and the Lamb shall be the light of it. 

But taking the word " prophecy " in the second significa- 
tion — that of teaching in the Church or of acts of worship in 
the Church — we may still affirm that a witness for Jesus is 
this spirit of prophecy. We turn to the great men, the con- 
querors, the civilians, the generals, the men of might, the 
philosophers and poets, and there gather around their per- 
sons a host of parasites, of attendants, and flatterers. These 
swarm about them while they live and are in power; but let 
the generals or presidents or kings lose their power and be 
shorn of their glory, and the attendants scatter, the parasites 
fall off, the flatterers go. Or if dominion remains with them 
while they live, they soon pass from earth, and, as years in- 
crease, their names are forgotten. Where now are the con- 
querors? Where are they before whom men trembled, and 
before whom they sang paeans of joy ? They have gone, and 
there are none to reverence their dust; and, as the ages in- 
crease, few remember even the names of philosophers, poets, 
or of statesmen. But there is this peculiarity of Christ: that 
is, while he was living here he was almost disregarded ; the 
great of the world looked upon him with contempt. The 
scribes opposed him ; the powers of the world were leagued 
against him ; and in his later moments even his very follow- 



394 SERMONS. 

ers forsook him ; he trod the winepress alone. But he who 
in life was unhonored and disregarded, he who died, tri- 
umphed, and behold the host that go forth in his name! 
And when they go forth to prophesy — that is, to preach and 
proclaim his truth, to call upon the world to believe, they go 
forth as his servants. How strange the scene ! Never was 
there anything like it on the earth : and a witness for Jesus 
is this spirit of prophecy. For no other being was this ever 
done ; and the very fact that in all ages and in all countries 
there are men going forth proclaiming the name of Jesus is 
a testimony to his exalted divinity ; so that the spirit of 
prophecy is in this sense a testimony for Jesus. 

Oh, how glorious the scene! They testify for Jesus be- 
cause they profess that he sends them. You may stand in 
Asia, and to-day there is one talking because he believes that 
Christ sent him. Go to Africa's coast, and one is standing 
there to enlighten the people of that dark land; and he 
speaks because Jesus sent him. Go to yonder mountain-top, 
and behold the messenger lifts up there the standard of the 
cross. Go into yonder valley, and in the very wilderness 
there is a voice calling the world to repent and believe. Go 
into the crowded city or all over the land, and there are voices 
summoning the people in the highways and hedges to come 
in. And why? Because they profess that Jesus sent them, 
and they preach because they believe there is a direct injunc- 
tion laid upon them personally to go and preach the gospel. 
Where is there such another scene on earth ? Plato is studied, 
but none of the teachers profess that Plato sends them. The 
logic of Aristotle may be taught in the schools, but no one 
professes that Aristotle gave him a commission to teach. 
There may be eulogiums passed on the heroism of Alexander 
or Napoleon, but no one professes that voices from the spirit- 
land sent him to proclaim their virtues. But here among 
the old and young, in civilized and heathen lands, from the 
equator to the poles, there are men preaching Jesus because 
they believe he has commissioned them to preach. The voice 
has commanded them to go, and they go in his name, pro- 
claiming the great message which lie sends to men. Their 



THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY. 395 

preaching is a testimony for him, because he is their theme. 
The pulpit speaks of Jesus. It may speak of other themes 
incidentally ; it may speak of the progress of his kingdom. 
It lays its hand upon all the sciences, because they are but 
the outgushing of divine wisdom. All literature is tributary 
to it, because all literature is but an emanation of the divine 
mind working through the diversified forms of thought. The 
minister has the right to lay his hand upon all these; to 
travel through the heavens above and roam over the earth ; 
to trace the footsteps of the Almighty upon the mountain- 
tops and in the seas ; and yet his great message is, " Jesus and 
him crucified." 

The preacher may speak of nature, because all nature shows 
forth the handiwork of Jesus, for all things were created for 
him and by him, and without him was not anything made 
which was made. So that the pulpit exalts him, and carries 
his message to man. He said : " I, if I be lifted up, will draw 
all men unto me ;" and our duty as messengers, prophesying 
for Christ, is to lift him up before the people, to tell of his 
glorious divinity, of his pure humanity, of his boundless com- 
passion, and of his undying love; to tell how he made a sac- 
rifice for the sins of the people, to tell how he has risen tri- 
umphantly, and that there at the seat of empire, at the throne 
of the universe, a brother's heart yearns for our salvation. And 
not only for the high and great, not for those merely who 
are prosperous, but the heart that beats with holy impulses 
at God's right hand throbs with sympathy for every human 
being — even for the down-trodden and the outcast. Oh ! I 
lament the infidelity to be found in the Church of the liv- 
ing God, when we cannot believe that divine grace can stoop 
as easily to save a poor wretch on the verge of hell as to 
save one of us who may fancy we are in more comfortable 
condition. 

If a man is saved, it is by grace alone ; it is by a wonderful 
condescension of the Almighty Saviour; and that boundless 
grace can grasp every human being. Those arms of Jesus 
that encircle humanity are strong enough to lift us all to 
heaven ; and when he stooped he came so low that he laid 



396 SERMONS. 

his arms beneath the very lowest grades of mankind, that lie 
might raise us up to the very throne of God. Tell me there 
is one that may not be saved, and I shall scarcely dare to 
preach ; I dare not call the sons of men to come, were it not 
that Jesus died that they might come ; but I rejoice there is a 
gospel so full, so free, and so glorious that all may be saved — 
that we have a High-priest who is able to save to the utter- 
most all who will come unto God through him. It is this 
Jesus who is the theme of the Christian pulpit; and in this 
respect prophecy is the testimony of him. Then, again, the 
pulpit bears, not its own words, but the message of Jesus 
directly to men : " Go preach my Gospel." I cannot explain 
how it is, w T hen a man stands in a pulpit and talks of the 
cross of Christ, that divine power reaches the hearts of the 
audience, but I know it to be so. God has ordained preach- 
ing to be the means of saving the world, and when a man 
talks of Jesus he exercises an omnipotent influence through 
his words. There is a key put in those words that sometimes 
unlocks the hardest heart. A single sentence, like an arrow 
of light, pierces into the darkest soul, loosening manacles, 
shaking dungeons, and opening prison doors : poor, dark souls 
are made full of light, and trembling men rejoice with joy 
unspeakable. Believers in Jesus Christ, I. rejoice that as 
years increase these testimonies for Jesus multiply. Great 
was the army that published, saith the psalmist; many shall 
run to and fro, says the prophet, and knowledge shall be in- 
creased. I rejoice that on this blessed day there are more 
persons talking of Jesus and more people gathered to hear of 
him in this than in any previous year. Probably there are 
sixty thousand men in our own land who have been prophesy- 
ing to-day of the Lord Jesus Christ, besides those in other 
lands. Look across into Europe; skirt along Asia; look at 
the little lines of light that are dotting Africa, and go to the 
South Sea Islands : then listen, and you will hear from every 
mountain-top and every valley a song of praise rising to our 
glorious Redeemer ! 

But, as I intimated in the commencement, the word " proph- 
ecy " is not confined simply to those who preach the gos- 



THE SPIRIT OE PROPHECY. 397 

peL It is used for all acts of worship, embracing especially 
the testimony of religious experience and exhortation. Thus 
says the apostle in his epistle to the Corinthians: "He that 
prophesieth speaking unto men to edification, and exhorta- 
tion, and comfort." Then, again : " If, therefore, the whole 
Church be come together into one place, and all speak with 
tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or un- 
believers, will they not say that ye are mad ? But if all 
prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one 
unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all." And 
then again, showing how universal was this prophesying, he 
says: "Every man praying or prophesying, having his head 
covered, dishonoreth his head. But every woman that pray* 
eth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoreth her 
head : for that is even all one as if she were shaven." From 
this we see that whatever prophesying may have been, as the 
term is used by the apostle, it was an act in which all the 
Church engaged. I understand this to be an act of religious 
worship especially put forth in behalf of the salvation of 
others and the edification of the Church. The most common 
of all these forms in which the whole congregation can join 
is that of religious experience, and in this respect the testi- 
mony of Jesus, or a witness of Jesus, is the spirit of prophecy. 
There rises up an old man in the congregation and says : 
" For so many years I have been following Christ, and his 
ways are ways of pleasantness and all his paths are peace." 
He is not an eloquent or a learned man ; it is nothing to him 
whether people are pleased or displeased ; it is simply the ut- 
terance of a heart full of love to God. There rises a matron, 
and she simply says that she gave her* heart to Christ, and she 
has been kept in perfect peace through the abounding mercy 
of Christ Jesus : she testifies of the grace of God. And there 
rises up a man in the prime of life, and he tells that he was 
once subject to strong passion, and that lie wandered from 
the right path, but the spirit of God found him ; he humbled 
himself, his sins were forgiven, and now he rejoices in par- 
doning mercy and in dying love. As he speaks, the tear rolls 
down the cheek, and manhood's strength is united with Chris- 



398 SEKMONS. 

tian tenderness. Men hear and say that there is a power in 
the religion of Jesus Christ. And there is the maiden yet in 
the blush of youth ; she tells how she came to the cross, and 
at the cross the burden fell off her soul, and she rejoices with 
joy unspeakable and full of glory. Why, this is just such a 
scene as the prophet Joel predicted would come to pass when 
he said: "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will 
pour out my Spirit upon all flesh ; and your sous and your 
daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, 
your young men shall see visions." Now it is the universal 
prophesying in the Christian Church that witnesses the pres- 
ence of Christ, and sometimes religious testimony is more 
powerful than many sermons we preach. 

I may stand in this sacred place and speak, and yet some 
one may say, " It is his profession ; he has been taught to do 
this, it is his life-work;" but how of that father and mother, 
or that sister and brother ? How of the man who was a 
drunkard last year and now is reformed ? How of the man 
who used to be in the gutter, and now is singing songs of 
thanksgiving and praise? How of the man who was covet- 
ous, and now is giving his treasures to promote piety, truth, 
and civilization on earth ? How of the man who was revelling 
in sin and was a curse to the community, and now is emulating 
the very angels of God in his efforts to make the world happy ? 
Such testimonies as these are witnesses of Jesus, they tell 
of his saving power, and that his name is Jesus still. It is 
thus that by the experience of the Church there is a testi- 
mony for him. 

This system of religion differs from all which went before 
it. In the olden time £ few priests performed the rites and 
ceremonies. The Jewish priests and Levites took the victims, in 
the wilderness they carried the tabernacle, and when the tem- 
ple was built they attended to its ritual ; the people had no 
part; it passed into the hands of a few. It has ever been the 
case that the few have been disposed to arrogate to themselves 
some peculiar loftiness — to say to the vast mass of the people: 
"Away, ye profane!" But the spirit of Christianity is a 
spirit of universal love; and Christ bids all men to come and 



THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY. 399 

take part in this glorious work. The spirit is poured upon 
all flesh, and to some extent all may prophesy. This may be 
done in various ways. There is the Sunday-school, in which 
men may engage as teachers, and explain the word of God. 
There may be visits to the poor, the sick and the outcast; 
there may be meetings to gather in the fallen and efforts to 
give to the poor bread, to the naked clothing, and to the suf- 
fering relief ; to make the poor rich in spiritual comfort, and to 
tell men everywhere of the exceeding love of God in Christ 
Jesus our Lord. There is a work to be done unto which every 
man and woman in the Church is called; # you and I are com- 
missioned, every one of us, the oldest and the youngest, to do 
something. You are a traitor to the cause of Christ if you 
are not working for him. Religion does not consist merely in 
theories, in preaching, or in experience, it has a practical side. 
Pure religion and undefiled is this : to visit the fatherless 
and the widow in their affliction, and to keep one's self un- 
spotted from the world. I am sorry that in these days so few 
feel this obligation ; that while the poor are crying, and the 
wretched are suffering, there are so few who have hearts of 
love to go out and care for them. And yet in all this is in- 
cluded the idea of prophesying and leading men to Christ. 
How often, by visiting the stranger, may the heart be turned I 
Bring the stranger to the house of God, and you may ultimate- 
ly bring him to the cross of Christ ; neglect him, and he 
wanders away forever. So universal is this principle of 
Christian love that it embraces little children in its arms. 
To-day our earth is becoming partially transformed by the 
character of the music which is sung in our Sunday-schools 
and at our firesides. The hearts of the children are all aglow 
with divine song, and many a parent is reached by those sweet 
strains learned in the Sunday-school, and practised by the fire- 
side. Infidel fathers are sometimes awakened by what they 
see of the power of the love of God in children's hearts. My 
own heart has been touched upon several occasions when I 
have heard little children sing so sweetly : 

"I will believe, I do believe, 
That Jesus died for me." 



400 SERMONS. 

I have watched little children and seen the tear start in the 
eye, and I have said, is it possible that the little heart grasps 
the idea, "Jesus died for me ?" Can my little boy get so near 
the cross as to feel that Jesus is his ? It is even so, that under 
the gospel little children sing of Jesus, and they behold his 
glory; and that Jesus, who took them up in his arms, laid 
his hands upon them, and blessed them, still has his hand on 
their heads, and will guard them from evil. When I look 
through the world to-day, and see the struggles of men, I 
behold that they are engaging in wonderful works, amassing 
wealth, or writing for fame, and yet, after all, I see there is 
nothing like working for Jesus. We gather ourselves round 
a centre that never can be removed. There is something that 
delights us in being members of a large communion. If I 
range myself upon the side of the cross of Christ, if I show 
forth his praise, patriarchs, apostles, prophets, martyrs, the 
good, the wise, and the great gather about like a vast cloud 
of witnesses, as w r ell as the host of the redeemed that shall 
yet stand before the throne of God. 

When I think of anything to be accomplished how can I be 
successful but by operating in harmony witli the laws of nat- 
ure? The man works foolishly who works against her laws; 
and what are these laws but God's purposes written that man 
may read them? I can sail smoothly down yonder current, but 
it requires exertion to stem it. It is by placing himself in har- 
mony with God's great purposes that man gains position and 
succeeds. If I am looking for a glorious immortality, I must 
work in harmony with God's will, but if I set myself against 
him my efforts shall come to naught. And yet how many 
are there who are striving against God, who are trying to seek 
for honor and comfort in this world contrary to his law ! 
Forsake that unwise course, take hold on the principles of 
the gospel, give your hearts to God, work in harmony with 
his laws, and there will be a glorious success. There are 
some of you who have felt ambition stirring your souls, and 
you are seeking for some place, like travellers who climb 
up steep rocks, to write their names high. If you write 
your name on yonder tree, it will decay; if you write it on 



THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY. 401 

yonder mountain-top, the mountains will crumble ; and if 
you could write it on the very face of the burning sun, yet 
his rays will go out; but the Christian can have his name 
written in the heavens above. Can you say — 

" Before the throne my surety stands, 
My name is written on his hands"? 

If so, it shall never be effaced. Jesus can keep those com- 
mitted to his care, and will never forsake them. 

How glorious is the mission of the Church to-day ! You 
are entering this house for the first time ; you come here as 
a community to worship. What shall this Church be? A liv- 
ing or a dying one ? Shall it be a power or shall it be weak? 
It all depends upon whether you have Jesus in the midst of 
you. A living Church is a Church where Jesus dwells. If 
you would have the testimony of Jesus, let this be a prophe- 
sying Church. Let every old man who is here work now 
more than ever; let every matron resolve to be for God 
more than ever. Come, young men and young women, 
strong in heart, dedicate yourselves to God ; come, little chil- 
dren in the bloom of life's earliest hours, and give yourselves 
to the Saviour. When I see this house, so neat and com- 
modious, erected for this sparse population, this growing 
suburb of a village, I mark your energy and liberality. I 
know some of you have made large offerings, but I say to 
every one of you, have some interest in this edifice ; try, 
young and old, to feel that you have some share in this re- 
ligious institution. As we leave this house, let us all go de- 
termined to do more for Christ than ever we have done. My 
brother, what have you been doing and what are you doing? 
You sometimes say, " These people who sing and pray and 
rejoice are persons of weak intellect." Pray what have 
you been doing with }< our glorious intellect ? What are yon 
doing now to make the world better? You talk, perhaps, 
of magnificent plans; you talk of the life of the nation, and 
of this age of the world, but I tell you that nothing but 
virtue will save our nation, and that virtue flows from Jesus 
Christ. There is nothing that will save this world but the 
gospel of the Son of God ; and it is our duty as patriots and 

26 



402 SERMONS. 

philanthropists to rally about the cross. If you think some 
of us are rather weak in intellect, or too emotional, or are not 
broad enough in our views, come and lead us, and show us 
what to do ; lay down your broad plans, establish your foun- 
dations, bring on your corner-stones, and find something bet- 
ter than the Church of the living God. Thank God it has 
stood for nearly two thousand years. The billows have been 
rising against it and have dashed upon it in vain. It still 
stands ; all the powers of evil have not been permitted to 
prevail against it ; and to-day the Church of Christ is strong- 
er than ever. Do you tell me of your elections, of your par- 
ties, and of your administrations! The Church of Christ 
shall outlive them all. It lived before America was discov- 
ered, and it will live after all the forms of government shall 
have passed away. I love patriotism, humanity, and civil- 
ization, but I love the cross of Christ more than them all, 
for out of that cross flows the power that shall bind them 
all into unity. 

My message to you is, behold the Master ! behold him in 
his glory, behold him as your Saviour, and behold him as 
your future Judge and King. His name has been the theme 
of ancient poet, patriarch, and prophet, and it is the theme 
of loved ones in the spirit land. His name is Jesus still, and 
it has lost none of its sweetness; and it is the only name 
given under heaven among men whereby w T e may be saved. 
Tell me of Calvin, or Luther, or Wesley, or of other great 
men, but they cannot save me. There is no one but Jesus 
can do helpless sinners good. Oh ! what a glorious name ! 

"Sweetest note in seraph's song, 
Sweetest sound on mortal tongue, 
Sweetest carol ever sung, 
Let its echoes flow along." 

Hail him as your Conqueror and King, and join us in 
singing : 

"Oh, that with yonder sacred throng, 
We at his feet may fall; 
We'll join the everlasting song, 
And crown him Lord of all." 



XXIII. 

tfjri Cantwt far (Eternal life. 



THE CONTEST FOR ETERNAL LIFE. 

"Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud 
of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily 
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking 
unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was 
set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at 
the right hand of the throne of God." — Hebrews xii. 1, 2. 

The language of the text is highly figurative. The illus- 
trations employed are taken from the games of ancient times. 
Struggles for pre-eminence were then common ; wrestling, 
running, contests of every character exhibiting physical 
strength. That these games might be seen by great num- 
bers, large buildings were erected. The ground, or lower 
part, embracing a wide area, was surrounded with seats, as- 
cending one above the other, so that vast multitudes occupy- 
ing those seats could see the contests. Among these was 
running. There was the racecourse marked out, as there 
may be seen even among us in modified form, though our 
arrangements are never of the same permanent character ; 
for the ancients had no other so great national gatherings as 
these, at which games and amusements were the occupation 
of the day. Sometimes poems were read, histories were re- 
cited. And as the parties engaging for pre-eminence were con- 
scious that they stood in the midst of a vast assembly, they 
contended more earnestly than they would had they been 
alone, or nearly alone. When the eyes of multitudes were 
upon those who ran in the race, there was additional motive 
why they should so run as to win a crown. The crown was 
not costly, but was made of leaves of oak, pine, or laurel ; 
but the victor valued it above all earthly price. Money could 
not buy it, descent could not inherit it ; it was the reward of 
personal bravery or personal energy. 



406 SKUMONS. 

This figure the apostle applies to things spiritual. We arc 
represented as engaged in an earnest struggle, such as calls 
forth all the powers possessed by us, whether of soul or of 
body. The prize is a heavenly crown, eternal salvation. 
Around us are gathered not only the people among whom we 
live and whose eyes are upon us, but also the apostle calls as 
spectators the hosts of the departed. He seems to lift the cur- 
tain that hides the invisible from view, and he enumerates pa- 
triarchs and prophets and martyrs — those of whom the world 
Was not worthy. And having brought before our vision their 
conflicts, in which many of them died — some stoned, some sawn 
asunder, some torn in pieces by wild beasts, some cast into dun- 
geons, some outcasts and exiles, but in the midst of all strug- 
gling on until they gained the prize — they are represented as 
gazing upon us too. And then at the end of the race there ap- 
pears Jesus. He himself ran the race ; he himself engaged in 
the contest — a contest so severe that no man stood by him. 
And yet, for the glory that was set before him, he endured the 
cross, despising the shame, reached the goal in triumph, and is 
set down at the right hand of God. He is to be the dispenser 
of rewards, and the eye of the Christian is to be kept upon him 
— " looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." 

That we may, with the apostle, fully enter into the spirit of 
this passage and be profited by it, let us consider, first, that to 
each one of us life is a severe struggle, a race. 

In these contests, in the later Roman period, there was far 
more than the race. There was the conflict with wild beasts; 
there were the fights of the gladiators, in which men sought 
each others' lives. And the early Christians were subjected to 
all manner of tortures. Now, life is similar to such a scene — 
a struggle, a conflict. There may be some who fancy others 
have an easy way, but no one finds the way to be easy. We 
have temptations within us ; we have difficulties about us, pos- 
sibly unknown to any but ourselves and the Lord ; but " every 
heart knoweth its own bitterness." And I think that, in a pro- 
bationary state, it is of necessity that there shall be trial, up to 
the amount that one is able to bear, not beyond that we are 
able to bear, for there shall always be a way of escape ; but I 



THE CONTEST FOR ETERNAL LIEE. 407 

think a probationary state involves the idea that we shall be 
tried to the extent of such ability. There must be the evi- 
dence that we count attachment to God above all things else ; 
and, if so, that attachment must be tried. It may be tested 
in various ways, but there must be some trials which shall 
bring our hearts up to the point of giving up all for God, for 
right, for duty. 

We have in our own natures a contest of evil against the 
good. The old poets spoke of this when they said : " I ap- 
prove the right, yet the wrong pursue." We see what is right, 
to some extent we love what is right ; we promise to ourselves 
we will do what is right, and yet, owing to some seemingly hid- 
den and secret power, we are perpetually going wrong. You 
are doing, day after day, what you have promised yourself 
you would not do, and you are neglecting, day after day, what 
you have a hundred times promised yourself you would do. 
You have said you would commence a new life, and you have 
been postponing it. You promised, long ago, before God, 
that if he would spare you until a certain time, you would 
give him your heart and be a Christian. The time came and 
went, and you are not a Christian yet. You made vows, and 
the vows have been broken ; and you can only explain this 
strange inconsistency between your conscience and your prac- 
tice in this : that there seems to be within you a hidden power 
which is perpetually urging you on to that which you know 
is not best. Every one of us understands this fact. We 
may hide it from those near us; we may not speak of it to 
our best friends; but you and I know the strength of the in- 
clination which leads us so often astray. You and I have 
wept over it; we have in our hearts denounced ourselves a 
hundred times ; and yet we have gone and done the same 
thing again. It requires great resolution and great effort to 
subdue ourselves. "Better is he that conquereth himself 
than he that taketh a city." It is easier to meet a multitude 
of outward foes than to conquer the enemies within our own 
hearts — our pride, our self-will, our avarice, our lust, our sel- 
fishness ; for all these are present with us unseen, and they 
are perpetually leading us astray. And I can speak to you 



408 SERMONS. 

as from my own heart and experience — as from a brother's 
heart — when I say I know that you have had a terrible con- 
flict in that heart of yours to try to get it right. 

Then there are difficulties without. There are influences 
that beset us on every hand. We are ourselves prone to go 
wrong, and it would seem as if in this world there ought to 
be no tempter, none to lead us in the downward path, and yet 
there is. For every one who is ready to lend a helping hand 
and say, " Rise up and be more like God and the heavenly 
host," there are a dozen soliciting us to turn aside, to com- 
promise with the world, to mingle in the frivolities and dissi- 
pations of society, to use the intoxicating cup, and to indulge 
the passions that burn within the human bosom. And it re- 
quires no little firmness to resist these allurements, for they 
come from fashion and from wit and from beauty. The ap- 
plause of the world gathers about them, and who shall dare 
to stand up against the world and show himself to be singu- 
lar? "The world lieth in the wicked one," and it is ever al- 
luring us in the way to evil. 

And then, in addition to all these, we are taught, in the 
Word of God, that there is combined with these fascinations 
of the world, and with these evil tendencies of nature in our- 
selves, an actual, positive, spiritual influence to lead us astray. 
There is the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that 
now worketh in the children of disobedience. Although that 
spirit is not omniscient, cannot discern our spirits fully, yet, 
as you understand something of the temperaments of your 
children, and know what particular means to use to affect this 
one or that one the most, so these evil spirits know some- 
thing of our weakness, and the points at which we can be 
most easily assailed, and skilfnll} 7 is their knowledge applied. 
Opportunities are furnished, or we are led into them, unless 
we are careful ; temptations are supplied, and while we see 
nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing, that we can attribute di- 
rectly to an invisible source, there does come to every mind a 
most powerful influence, at times, which requires the utmost 
strength of will, and of trust in a divine influence for good, 
to enable us to resist. Happy is he who has never been car- 



THE CONTEST FOR ETERNAL LIFE. 409 

ried away. Happy is lie who, having been carried away for 
a moment, has hastened back to the Shepherd and Bishop of 
his soul. 

But I repeat what I stated at the beginning every one of 
us is tried to the utmost. The strength of temptation you 
may not be fully aware of, because you have not tried to re- 
sist. You may be to-day as the man floating down the river. 
The current is strong, but deep ; no impediment over which 
it passes, no fall, announces its force — a steady, strong, even 
current ; and you are sailing down calmly, and scarcely know 
you are borne along. You have given yourself to those in- 
clinations, and on, on, you sail; but try to turn and go up- 
ward, and then you will know the power of the stream. Try 
to resist the passion that hurries you onward, and you will 
comprehend its fearful force. Some of you have tried this, 
and, in the extremity of your agony, have cried : " Lord, save, 
or we perish !" 

The second point I notice is, that, notwithstanding all the 
difficulties that beset us — and they are man} 7 — there is a pos- 
sibility of running the whole length of the race, of succeed- 
ing in the contest, no matter how severe, and coming off vic- 
torious. We may gain the victory in the battle with our- 
selves, because, badly as we are constituted, depraved as are 
the feelings that hurry us onward, there is a divine power 
which promises, if we ask, to renew a right spirit within us; 
there is a promise that we shall be created anew in Christ Je- 
sus; that the old things shall pass away; that we shall be re- 
newed in the image of him who hath called us unto righteous- 
ness and holiness. And if a divine power can change this 
heart of mine, then shall I be able successfully to move on, so 
far as these inclinations of mine are concerned. If you have 
been looking and struggling for victory, the only way in which 
you can find it is in being made a new creature in Christ 
Jesus ; and the only way in which you can be made a new 
creature is by coming to Christ, confessing yourself a sinner, 
and throwing yourself on his abundant mercy. Your philos- 
ophy will never do it; your resolution will never do it; your 
efforts can never accomplish it. If you ever get the victory 



410 SERMONS. 

over that heart of yours, it must be by divine power taking 
away the stony heart and giving you a heart of flesh. There 
is a light which lighteth every man that cometli into the 
world ; and Jesus came into the world for this very purpose, 
to supply the moral energy which gives us the victory. Not 
only is this power, by a new creation, able to change our 
natures, to set us on a career of success, but the presence 
of Christ, promised with the renewal of the heart, gives us 
strength to overcome all the opposition that may be made in 
the world without us; for when Jesus is with us, stronger is 
he that is in us and for us than they that be against us. If a 
divine helper is always with us, what shall be the danger if 
our citadel is assaulted? The enemies shall be kept at bay. 
They may thrust their darts, they may attack the garrison, 
they may come, uttering a shout of triumph and expecting 
victory, but if Christ Jesus keep us, all these shall be hurled 
back. 

And then, as I said before, the evil spirits that may assail us 
are not omniscient, nor are they omnipotent, but our blessed 
Saviour is both omniscient and omnipotent. He knows every 
moment what we are in danger of, and he knows every mo- 
ment how to supply the needed strength. And if about that 
soul of yours all the evil influences of the universe were to 
be gathered in a single moment, the power of Jesus is greater 
than them all ; and if he lays around the beleaguered soul the 
arms of his mercy, it shall be safe. 

"That soul that on Jesus doth lean for repose, 
He never, no, never, deserts to its foes : 
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake. 
He'll never, no, never, no, never, forsake." 

Hence we may come off victorious, notwithstanding our 
enemies. In this race a voice seems to ring in our ears : 

"Ye need not one be left behind, 
For God hath bidden all mankind." 

The next point I notice is, that there is an intense interest 
in our gaining the victory, among the great cloud of witnesses ; 
and these are they who themselves have triumphed. If you 



THE CONTEST FOR ETERNAL LIFE. 41 1 

look at a gallery, stretching away back, higher, and higher, 
and higher, the aspect of it is like a cloud; and if you can 
fancy gallery above gallery, they seem like clouds piled upon 
clouds. Around us are gathered, not our associates merely, 
nor chiefly, for the racers have very little time to look about 
them — the race is before them and all their energies are 
needed ; but the witnesses, who have ended their conflicts, and 
are resting, have time to look down. The apostle goes back 
from the beginning to reckon, bringing, age by age, those who 
are in this cloud. Thus, he says, Abel, who being dead yet 
speaketh — that is, not only may a man have his interest in the 
world who has been dead a year, or a hundred years, or a thou- 
sand years, but that influence and that interest exist from the 
very beginning, for Abel is the first who died, and he is yet 
speaking. Abel is in the cloud, and is looking down on those 
who are running the race. He has not forgotten the world 
yet, though gone up to heaven ; he himself having died for 
his faith, having witnessed a good profession and triumphed, is 
looking down on earth. And Enoch, who walked and proph- 
esied in the midst of ungodly men, men who thirsted for his 
life, till the descending cloud took him up towards heaven, 
and he was not — that Enoch, holy, pure, triumphant — he is part 
of the host, watching us still ; he has not forgotten earth or 
its scenes ; he is gazing upon us. And Noah, who, warned 
of God, saved his family in the ark, who saw the dreadful 
scene when the ocean, breaking over its boundary, rising above 
hill and mountain, swept the earth of its inhabitants — Noah, 
having gained the reward, he is part of that throng, and is look- 
ing down upon us, who are exposed to a deluge of sin worse 
than the deluge which swept the face of the earth. There 
is Abraham, who was called to part with his dearest son, as 
he supposed, the son of promise, and when he sees father 
and mother struggling with the dearest of all affections, their 
hearts almost breaking over the sacrifice they may make, Abra- 
ham is looking down out of the cloud and trying to whisper : 
" Give them up for God. I gave up Isaac, and had him back 
again. Trust God. Be not afraid to sacrifice everything for 
Jesus." And Jacob, in his perilous pilgrimage — the poor boy 



412 SERMONS. 

who laid his head upon a rock, and saw angels ascending and 
descending, and gave the tenth of his possessions to God's 
cause, and whom God blessed abundantly — he is in the cloud, 
and he is looking down, as if to whisper to every poor boy 
who may be tempted to do wrong: "Do right and trust God. 
The angels of God are coming down to thee. Give what God 
has given thee, and he will give it back again." 

Such are the voices that come whispering out of that cloud. 
And then there come Gideon and Samson and Barak and Jeph- 
tha and a host of others — prophets, apostles, patriarchs, martyrs 
— what say they, looking down upon us? Isaiah? I listen, 
but oh! what glorious visions had he! Down in the valley 
by the tree they had sawn him asunder, and I hear his voice 
speaking: "Better obey God and be sawn asunder than live 
a life of sin." Oh! what the voices speak! The martyrs 
who were stoned, the men who were torn of wild beasts, 
those who passed through fire and blood, who conquered in 
the name of Jesus — they are in the cloud, and they are look- 
ing down upon us, and they are saying: "Trust God, and all 
shall be well. Death lasts only a little while; glory comes 
afterwards. Suffering is for but a few years — the morning- 
is breaking. Driven from the company of men to be in the 
company of angels. Driven from a life of suffering to be 
crowned with eternal fflorv before the throne of God." 

But the cloud of witnesses ends not here. If the thousands 
of years which have passed have not changed Abel and Enoch 
and Noah and Abraham, but they are part of the company 
of witnesses looking down still on those who are running this 
race, what shall we say of those more recently gone out from 
the midst of us? They have passed out of our sight, but 
they are there, just as Noah and Abraham and Jacob and 
Samson are there; and though we are not witnesses of them, 
thej 7 are witnesses of us, we are surrounded by them. They 
are looking at, gazing on, watching us. And who are they, 
and what interest do they feel? Ah! there is not one here 
who has not witnesses of his course just beyond the veil. 
You cannot see them, but they see you — grandfathers who 
clasped you in their arms; grandmothers who held you on 



THE CONTEST EOR ETERNAL LIFE. 413 

their knees ; fathers who counselled you and guided yon 
in the days of your youth ; mothers whose warm kiss you 
can still feel on your cheek, or whose warm tears dropped 
on your boyish head ; husbands who walked by your side ; 
wives who were your comfort and joy; brothers who stood, 
shoulder to shoulder, with you ; sisters who talked with you 
by day and rested with you by night; children who were 
in your arms, and to whom you talked of heaven, and of the 
angels, and little thought how soon they should be called away, 
but they have gone up and they are in the cloud. And they 
are watching, they are watching. We are encompassed by 
this great throng of witnesses who are gazing upon us; and 
the apostle brings them up to our view that we may remem- 
ber that their eyes are upon us as we run the race. 

Death does not change the nature, it does not destroy the 
affections. Think you those who clasped us in their arms but 
yesterday are careless of us because they have gone beyond 
the veil? Not at all. The purest affection is the holiest af- 
fection. The mother's love is taken as the type of heavenly 
love ; but has the mother who watched over me for forty or 
fifty years, and was a mother always — now that she has just 
gone into the heavenly world, has she ceased to be a mother 
still? jN"o ; she is in the cloud. Gazing up into glory, she 
sees the face of Jesus ; gazing down on earth, she sees the 
forms of those she loved. She is a witness. And it seems to 
me life would have more sacredness if we could only enter 
into the conviction that the departed ones are not away from 
us, not unmindful of us. We shall enter, it seems to me, into 
a higher assurance of the watchful providence of God, if we 
can think of the watchful care of our friends. And oh ! to 
think, as you walk along the street, exposed to trials, tempta- 
tions, sorrows, and cares, that dear, departed friends are look- 
ing at you ! You who are tempted and likely to go wrong, 
think : " Mother sees me." You who are assailed and likely 
to be led astray, think : " The dear one that dropped from 
my bosom is looking at me, wishing for my triumph and es- 
cape." What a moral power it would give ! And there is Je- 
sus at God's right hand, his eye on us always, and his strength 



414 SERMONS. 

given to us always. Oh ! it is these witnesses, a great com- 
pany, with their eyes upon us, that may have a powerful influ- 
ence upon our hearts and lives and make us strain every nerve. 
There are some of you in this room who, when you took hold 
of the hand that was cold in the dying hour, promised you 
would live for Jesus and meet the dying one in heaven. These 
loved ones are watching you ; they are looking for you to 
turn ; they are wondering what you are doing ; they are as- 
tonished that you are living away from Jesus. And yet you 
do not see them, because all your energies are to be employed 
in doing what you can. You are to look at present duty. 
They are resting, and gaze down on you. It is time enough 
for you to enter upon that beatific vision when you become 
victors. 

But now let me ask your attention to another thought. 
How T differently they view life and its end from us who are on 
this side ! Their eyes see the Christian approaching the goal 
of life. His friends are with him and they are weeping. The 
curtains hang heavily down the windows. Every footfall is 
quiet in the room. The words are all whispers. There is a 
tear in every eye. There is silence there in the chamber of 
death, and there are mourning and sadness ; but I hear the 
dying Christian sing out: "O grave ! where is thy victory? 
O death ! where is thy sting?" And he closes his eyes, his 
bead is on the bosom of Jesus, and he sweetly passes away. 
Tears are on this side. Looking at the cloud on the other 
side, and listening to the voices, I hear one saying: "Thank 
God, father's safe." And yonder is a little cherub voice sing- 
ing out: "Mother has come — safe, safe from a world of 
temptation." There is the poor man who was persecuted and 
assaulted by his passions and his tempters until his life was in 
jeopardy, but he goes off at last, and while friends weep on 
this side, they shout all through the cloud, "Another sinner 
saved;" while the soul itself, almost astonished at the fact of 
its salvation, as heaven bursts upon the vision, cries out : " Safe 
at last !" And oh ! the shout that goes up all through the 
cloud that reaches to the throne of God. For " there is joy 
in heaven among the angels of God over one sinner that re- 
penteth." 



THE CONTEST FOR ETERNAL LIFE. 415 

That we may be successful in this race, it is necessary that 
we prepare ourselves thoroughly. It will require all our ef- 
fort. No man need think to carry sin along. If you are to 
conquer you must lay aside every weight, everything in the 
way. The figure is probably taken from this : that the com- 
mon garments worn anciently were long, and hung in folds 
around the feet. The man who ran threw off his outer gar- 
ment; it was in his way. Everything that prevents your do- 
ing your duty, lay it aside — every weight, every encumbrance ; 
you must strip off everything that is wrong, leave off every 
sin, and turn to God by righteousness. If you fancy you can 
take some little sin along }-ou will be mistaken. "Lay aside 
every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset you ;" 
that is, the sin that you always so easily fall into. The figure 
is taken from the garment that fits so closely around one that 
it seems almost to be a part of himself. So there are sins 
that seem so natural to us that we can scarcely separate be- 
tween them and ourselves, they are so much a part of us ; but 
we must get clear of them, no matter how closely they fit 
us. Get rid of them if you expect to enter into heaven. If 
it be a right eye, better have it out than to be lost. If it 
be a right hand, better be without it than to go down into 
torment. There is no such thing as carrying with you a 
single sin to heaven. You can be dishonest before men, 
and you can defraud somebody, and no one know it but 
God; but you will never get into heaven — no, never get 
into heaven with that dishonesty or that fraud. You must 
make reparation to the utmost of your power, or the doors of 
heaven will be closed against you forever. You need not fan- 
cy, with a single sin upon you, you can get into that world of 
light. You must be washed, made pure, freed from your sin, 
if you expect to reach it. Let memory go back; call up 
your past history. If you have done wrong to any human 
being on earth, you must, to the extent of your abilitj r , repair 
that wrong. You may have hatred in your bosom against a 
brother, and may be saying in your heart: "I will repay 
him." As long as you have that feeling within you the doors 
of heaven are barred against you. You may give ever so 



41G SERMONS. 

much money for great causes, may make a loud profession 
and be among the most distinguished in the Church; but if 
you have this sin upon you, you will never be where Jesus is. 
You must lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so 
easily beset you. But it is worth giving up everything, it is 
worth laying aside every weight, to reach the skies. Oh ! to 
o-et into that cloud, to rise above that cloud! Oh! to get 
near the throne of God, to be among the blest who are sing- 
ing his praises, to be saved forever, it is worth the strug- 
gle — a struggle to last a whole life; a struggle that shall be 
resistance unto blood; a struggle that calls forth all our ener- 
gies — it is worth all this to be saved at last. 

Oh ! the glorious examples ! Jesus endured the cross — a 
heavier cross than we have to bear. Jesus despised the 
shame — greater shame than ever can be heaped on us; ran 
the race, and he is crowned on the throne of God. He knows 
how to help us when we are weak. Poor, feeble, trembling 
racer in the course, is your strength almost gone ? Look unto 
Jesus and whisper, " More strength," and you will be able to 
take another step. Strnggler in the contest, are your muscles 
wearied, and are you giving out? Look unto Jesus and whis- 
per, " A little more power," and it shall be yours. When 
temptation rushes upon you, and you are almost overborne, 
look unto Jesus. 

"He knows what sore temptations mean, 
For he hath felt the same," 

and he knows just what to do for you to bring you off con- 
queror. And all along the length of the race, whether it be 
on a plain or in a valley, whether it be up or whether it be 
down, whether it be alone or in the crowd, whether sick or 
well, whether at home or abroad — wherever 3^011 are, look 
unto Jesus, and the needed help you will have. Look to him 
who cares for you. " Look unto him, ye ends of the earth, 
and be ye saved." Look, and, as you look, live. Look ! power 
divine comes to you. Look! eternal life flows in your soul. 
Look! his eye is on you, and he gives message to his an- 
gels to have charge over you, and to keep you in all your 
ways. 



THE CONTEST EOK ETEENAL LIFE. 417 

It seems as though the interest of the redeemed in us had 
some connection even with their own joy. There is a very 
singular expression here : " And these all, having obtained a 
good report through faith, received not the promise; God 
having provided some better thing for us that they without 
us should not be made perfect." They are happy, but there 
is a greater happiness awaiting them when we come up and 
join them. The great triumph will not take place until all 
the sons of Adam who believe in Christ and trust in his aton- 
ing blood shall join the heavenly company. When it shall 
be I do not know, but the great rejoicing shall not be till you 
and I are there. The ancient worthies are happy; fathers 
and mothers in heaven are happy; our little children are 
happy, gloriously happy, but they will grow happier and hap- 
pier* Every redeemed spirit that goes up to heaven height- 
ens the gladness of heaven, and all heaven shall be happier 
when you and I get there than it was before. Ah! when we 
get there, how many shall say: "Another proof of love di- 
vine. What amazing mercy that saved such a sinner ! What 
amazing mercy that knew how to take su$h a one safely 
through all his conflicts!" And so all heaven shall be hap- 
pier and happier, until the last soul comes home. And then, 
when the last one to be redeemed from earth joins the tri- 
umphant song, oh ! the cloud, no longer looking down to 
earth and the struggles here, but, turning its face towards 
the throne, rising on wings of light and love and power, shall 
rise, rise, rise, as Jesus rose, until, around the throne, the 
voices shall come up like the voice of many waters: "Hal- 
lelujah! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!" 

27 



XXIV. 

$it$tu's t\U nn& Statin 



STEPHEN'S LIFE AND VISION.. 

"And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamen- 
tation over him." — Acts viii. 2. 

The burial of the first Christian martyr, and, so far as we 
are informed in sacred history, of the first Christian, is here 
presented, together with the mourning of the Church, which 
had gathered around him with tears of grief and expres- 
sions of sorrow. Yet it is not so much to call attention to 
the burial of Stephen and the lamentation over him that we 
have selected this text, as to draw some lessons from his life — 
lessons which, we trust,, may be profitable to us, if we duly 
ponder them. 

The first lesson which the life of Stephen teaches us is 
this: that God brings out of the very trials of the Church 
the material for its growth and prosperity. The occasion, as 
you will remember, which first brings Stephen to our notice 
was the complaint which arose that the widows of the Gre- 
cians were neglected in the daily ministration. There was 
thrown upon the infant Church a care for its poor members ; 
and, because the poor were to be cared for, the efforts of the 
Church were directed to that end. But, in this case, as the 
community increased in numbers some were neglected. The 
neglect caused complaint, and out of the complaint arose the 
necessity for additional laborers. The Jews were divided 
into two classes — those born in Judea and in Oriental lands, 
called Hebrews, and those born in the provinces, whither their 
fathers had migrated for trade. Some lived in Alexandria, 
some in Cilicia, and some in distant parts of Greece; and 
these, though Jews equally with the others, were called Gre- 
cians. It may be asked, possibly, why they made complaint 
that their widows were neglected? The only reason I can 



422 SERMONS. 

discover is that they were comparative strangers; the others 
had their connections and friends in Jerusalem. Born in the 
land, and having lived in the midst of the people, they were 
known, while the widows of the Grecians were comparatively 
unknown. And here is brought to light the fact that God 
wills not the neglect of strangers ; but, in the suffering stran- 
gers and the poor, he brings forward agencies for the growth 
of the Church. 

That there might be no neglect of the widows of the Gre- 
cian Jews, the apostles, who felt that their whole time ought 
to be occupied in other services, said: "It is not reason that 
we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Where- 
fore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men, of hon- 
est report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom." And Ste- 
phen was one of the men selected, who himself was a Grecian 
Jew, that, being acquainted with this class, he might see that 
the widows were cared for. Thus an institution for the en- 
largement of the Church grew up out of its wants. Had 
there been no poor, there would have been no deacons called 
for; had there been no deacons, there would have been no 
Stephen to bless and honor the Church. So that we are not 
to complain because God has placed the poor and the widows 
among us. They are sad in their loneliness, they suffer in 
their affliction, and yet the greatest blessing may come, both 
to the particular and to the general Church, from those who 
are so placed in its care. Just as the crippled and helpless 
child calls on a mother's sympathy most deeply, and becomes 
to her dearer than all the others, so it may be that God or- 
ders that the suffering shall call out our deepest sympathies, 
and shall become a bond to bind the Church together, and 
even evoke its most ardent devotion. Let us, then, not com- 
plain of burdens which may be thrown upon the Church ; 
they are blessings in disguise, and w T hen w r e labor for the 
needy we may be doing the very work which calls out our 
powers, and shall bring God's blessing to us. 

A second lesson is, that wherever persons begin to discharge a 
duty, though the duty may seem at first to be of a secular char- 
acter, they grow in grace and in usefulness. The spirit of la- 



STEPHEN'S LIFE AND VISION. 423 

bor precedes the spirit of triumph. It was not to preach that 
these seven were selected ; they were simply business men. 
"Look out from among you," say the apostles — not from 
among the preachers, but from among the members of the 
Church — from among the traders, the mechanics, and the 
sons of toil — "seven men." Thus God lays duties upon the 
whole Church; not upon the ministry only, but upon men in 
all the walks of life. It is said that the multitude approved 
of the suggestion of the apostles ; the whole matter was 
brought before their judgment, showing that all of us should 
be interested in whatever is to be planned or to be executed 
for the interest of the Church. 

Stephen, from what we can perceive, was a man familiar 
with the law; he was, probably, very carefully educated in 
Jewish literature. We gather this from the fact that he dis- 
puted in the synagogues, and they were not able to resist the 
wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. It has been sug- 
gested, and I think it is probably true, though history does 
not so inform us, that Stephen was a fellow-student with Paul, 
that they sat together at the feet of Gamaliel and listened to 
his lessons ; but Stephen had turned his attention to business ; 
for it was a saying of the old rabbins that he who did not 
teach his son a trade taught him to steal. They believed 
men, however rich and educated, must have some employ- 
ment, some honorable calling, something by which they could 
gain an independent livelihood. Stephen and Philip were 
selected to distribute bread and provisions every day out of 
the common fund ; they carried to the poor widows that 
which they needed for their subsistence. 

It was no office of honor or of profit; there was simply the 
discharge of a duty ; and yet, as they discharged that duty for 
the sake of the Church and of the Lord, the Spirit of God 
came upon them. While they carried the bread to the poor 
widow, how natural it would be, when she was sick, to speak 
a word of comfort; when she was sad, to utter a word of 
cheer ; when she might be possibly sinking, to tell her of the 
heavenly world; to remind her that Jesus was the Husband 
of the widow and the Father of the fatherless. And thus, 



424: SERMONS. 

before be was aware, Stepben began to preach the Lord Je- 
sus; not having been selected for preaching, not designing 
to preach, but from the very necessities of the case his talents 
were developed. And the lesson to us is that he who, for 
the Church, undertakes any service, however laborious, severe, 
and self -sacrificing his duties may be, in the discharge of 
them God will be with him, the blessed Saviour will come 
into his heart, his soul will expand, he will drink in the spirit 
of true benevolence. 

Exercise is the law of growth ; and the reason why very 
many have not the spirit of the Lord Jesus, and are not 
abundant in the consolations of the Gospel, is that they will 
not do the work of Christ. Some of them say : " Could 
we stand in holy places and minister; had God given us the 
tongue of eloquence, and the power of persuasion, oh, how 
we would delight to address vast assemblies !" But to visit the 
stranger and the fatherless, to carry bread to the hungry, and 
to clothe the naked, this is a work in which their hearts take 
no delight. There are neglected strangers in the city ; there 
are the fatherless who ought to be comforted ; there are the 
sorrowing who ought to be cheered ; and because we fail to 
minister to these we fail to grow in the knowledge of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. There never yet set out a trembling dis- 
ciple to visit the afflicted but, while upon his journey, the 
Lord Jesus Christ joined him, and while he endeavored to 
speak words of consolation, the Spirit of God came into his 
heart. Never yet did a human being undertake to do the 
work of the Saviour, but the Saviour was with him. The 
heavens may fall, the earth may reel, all universal creation 
may pass away, but not one jot or tittle of the promises of 
God shall fail; and never was there a step taken in the dis- 
charge of duty but Jesus was there. So, too, if we would 
have the highest graces, we must begin by the discharge of 
present duty. "Wait not for glorious opportunities, but be- 
gin now. "Work now in the name of the Lord ; and as we 
work the tongue shall grow eloquent, the soul shall expand ; 
we shall rise, as towards a mountain-top, higher and higher^ 
every day of our lives. 



STEPHEN'S LIFE AND VISION. 425 

There is another lesson connected with the life of Stephen, 
and that is, that a true heart, making earnest efforts in behalf 
of the cause of God, can stand unmoved in the midst of 
enemies. It is said that Stephen disputed in the synagogue 
of the Libertines and Cyrenians and Cilicians and Alexan- 
drians — the synagogue in which Grecian Jews worshipped — 
and I presume among the rest with Saul, who was afterwards 
Paul. Saul w r as one of those Grecian Jews, a native of Tarsus, 
a city of Cilicia in Asia Minor, and he probably worshipped in 
this same synagogue. A question arose among these Jews 
whether the Scriptures were fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth 
as the Christ. We have scarcely a conception of the daily 
life of the early Christian Church. Jews simply met together 
in their synagogues in the time of Christ as before his time, 
and after the death of Christ as before that event. Some of 
them believed that the Scriptures which told of the Messiah 
were fulfilled in Jesus, while others believed they were not 
fulfilled in him. They divided on this question, and discussed 
the point. Stephen reasoned from the Scriptures to show 
that Jesus was the promised Messiah, and Saul may have con- 
tended that he was not, but was an impostor. 

In these disputations none of them were able to resist the 
wisdom and the spirit with which Stephen spake. How he 
unfolded the prophecies ! how he culled out what David and 
Isaiah said, and the revelations of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Dan- 
iel ! and as he reasoned the holy prophets seemed to gather 
about him. There in the synagogue, with the book of the 
law before him, methinks his sparkling eye beamed with truth, 
his forehead almost shone with radiance. He rehearsed the 
fulfilment of prophecy concerning Jesus, the glorious Saviour 
who had come ; showed how disease fled before him ; how the 
dead were raised ; how the heavens bowed when he was dying, 
and the earth moaned, and how he rose again. As he called 
witnesses from the Old Testament, from heaven, from earth, to 
testify that this Jesus was the Christ, they could not resist the 
wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. And yet, such 
were their prejudices, that they became exceedingly enraged 
as he told that Jesus was the end of the law for righteous- 



426 SERMONS. 

ness, as he told how all these shadows faded away when the 
substance appeared, and as he asserted that the sacrifices were 
useless now, for the Lamb of God had been offered. They 
understood him to condemn the temple services and to speak 
blasphemous words against the holy place. He was arrested 
and brought to the enclosure of the temple. There he was; 
the temple w T alls were before him ; there sat the Jewish San- 
hedrim, with the high-priest presiding. When the witnesses 
charged that he had said that Christ came to put an end to the 
law, to destroy that holy place so long the rallying-point of all 
hearts, the high-priest inquired if these things were so. Then 
all eyes were turned towards Stephen. How did he appear? 
Was he abashed? did he behave as a culprit? do you see 
him, with downcast looks, pleading for clemency ? does he 
ask for forbearance? The high-priest is frowning; the ac- 
cusers stand, watching him ; the witnesses have testified. In- 
stead of being abashed or downcast, as they looked at him 
his face shone like the face of an angel. He felt that he was 
on the side of truth ; he felt that God was with him ; and 
when a man knows he is right, he can look the universe in 
the eye. He fears no man, and I might almost with rever- 
ence say, in the sense of terror, he fears not God. He rever- 
ences God ; but he has nothing to dread : all that are true 
are in harmony with him. Stephen, though he had not one 
friend probably in the assembly, stood unmoved. Such has 
been the condition of witnesses to the truth in other ages. 
Let a man feel he rests on God's word, and he can face 
princes and potentates; bonds and imprisonment deter him 
not ; death, with all its terrors, may be before him, but he is 
a victor over it by the power of truth. 

We can possibly here find a key to the speech of Stephen. 
It seems, in some respects, to be very abrupt. He begins by 
tracing the history of the Jews, how God spoke to Moses and 
to the fathers, and, bringing down his narrative to the build- 
ing of the temple as a place of worship, he adds: "Howbeit 
the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands !" He 
is not confined to temples. He spoke of the universality of 
God's presence. It seems to us to-day to be an ordinary speech. 



STEPHEN'S LIFE AND VISION. 427 

and yet to the Jews it seemed to be a confirmatory accusa- 
tion. They said, "He acknowledges that this is not the pe- 
culiar house of God; this temple is no holier than other 
places ; God dwells everywhere ;" and they construed that 
into blasphemy. That was the end of it; they rose in indig- 
nation against him, and he broke off, saying, "Ye stiff- 
necked and uncircumcised of heart!" accusing them of kill- 
ing the prophets, of being the sons of the fathers who killed 
the prophets, themselves being the betrayers and murderers 
of the Lord Jesus Christ. When they heard that the indig- 
nation swelling in their hearts before grew to such a pitch 
that, it is written, " they gnashed on him with their teeth." 
They probably rose in fury, were pressing right towards him, 
and immediate death seemed to threaten him. In that mo- 
ment, when he had not a friend on earth, he cast his eye up- 
ward and cried out: "Behold ! I see the heavens opened and 
Jesus standing at the right hand of God!" 

What a vision was that! When God's servant failed of 
friends on earth a revelation was given to him that he had a 
Friend in heaven. When there was no one on earth to do 
him justice, there was an Advocate before the throne of God; 
when all earth was closed against him, heaven opened its por- 
tals and was waiting to receive him. Now, with regard to this 
dying scene — has it ever occurred to you that this is the first 
Christian death recorded ? I do not know how the early Chris- 
tians contemplated dying. It seems to me the idea of death 
in their minds would be associated with the dying Jesus on 
the cross. When Jesus died the heavens were all covered 
with darkness; he suffered agony. It seems to me, had I 
lived in that age, I should have said, " When I come to die I 
must look for darkness and sorrow ; I shall have agony, and 
I shall have no comfort. As Jesus died in agony, and yet 
rose again in triumph, I must die in agon} 7 ." But when Ste- 
phen came to die, instead of crying out, " Why hast thou for- 
saken me?" he had visions of glory; and that Saviour who 
knew what it was to die came to sympathize with his servant, 
to show how he loved him, and to throw light in advance 
upon the darkness of the tomb. The death of Stephen is the 



428 SERMONS. 

pattern of the Christian disciple's death — a victory over all 
fear, over all terror ! No shadows rested on him, no words 
of sorrow lingered on his lips ; the distance between heaven 
and earth seemed to be narrowed, and, while in the midst of 
bodily agony, he stood right on the confines of glory. The 
veil was withdrawn ; the Invisible that always surrounds us 
seemed to become perceptible. He looked up into heaven, 
and he talked with his Saviour as a man talks with his friend, 
lie said, " Receive my spirit." 

There is the further thought that, in order to have this view 
of heaven when we come to die, in order that the mind's eye 
may see Jesus, there must be a heart that has no enmity tow- 
ards any child of man. The reason why many do not enjoy 
the presence of God consciously is because they hate their 
fellow-men. Jesus says of the Jews : " They hated me with- 
out a cause ; they hate both me and my Father." Where 
persons have wronged us we say, possibly, with the lip, we 
forgive; and yet there is lingering in the heart a wish that 
they may not prosper ; a secret satisfaction if they suffer ; a 
desire that they may not be well spoken of, and a readiness 
to throw out suggestions that may possibly diminish their in- 
fluence and happiness. While that feeling lingers there can- 
not be communion with God. You may as well dismiss from 
3 T our heart the thought that you can have peace with God 
while you retain a single feeling of ill-will towards any human 
being whom God has made. They had sworn falsely against 
Stephen ; they were thirsting for his blood ; they were cast- 
ing deadly missiles at him, and yet he retained not in his 
heart one feeling of unkindness; but, seeing the vision, he 
called towards heaven, as in the hearing of earth : " Lord, 
lay not this sin to their charge." It was sin, it is true, and 
they were sinners ; and yet he exhibited no anger, no unkind- 
ness, no ill-will. 

Oh ! if we could throw out of our hearts this feeling of un- 
kindness towards men, we would see the heavens opened 
oftener. If we would turn away from hatred, strife, or vari- 
ance, then we should have sympathy in the courts above, and 
would rejoice in the presence of God. There must be this 



STEPHEN'S LIEE AND VISION. 429 

world-wide philanthropy in our hearts before we are prepared 
to see God in his glory. And now I say to yon, young wom- 
en and yonng men — I speak to yon, ye men of business — if 
there be, this morning, in your hearts an angry feeling towards 
any human being, exterminate it if you hope to see the heav- 
ens opened and Jesus standing at God's right hand. The 
dying saint cannot hate; the living saint can no more hate 
than the dying one; and if on a dying bed you must not 
only forgive all, but love all, living and breathing you must 
have the same benevolence. May we, when we come to die, 
have such visions of heaven as Stephen had. Is heaven any 
nearer Judea than it is to America? Was not Stephen's 
heart of the same mould as your heart and mine? He was a 
man of like passions with us. He had been a sinner — he be- 
came a disciple. We are sinners — we have become disciples. 
Is not Jesus the same? Has he changed? Does he care less 
for his followers to-day than he did eighteen hundred years 
ago ? " Thy years fail not." He is the same yesterday, to- 
day, and forever ; and Jesus loves a suffering disciple as much 
to-day as he did then ; and, if you are his, he cares for you 
just as much as he cared for Stephen. 

Do you ask me, did Stephen really see the heavens opened? 
Did he really see Jesus standing at the right hand of God, or 
was it fancy? I answer, I cannot tell. If it were a miracle 
in the strict sense, then he saw. God can give this sight to 
the eye ; he can throw the heavens open ; he can unveil, if 
he please, the portals of the skies. And yet I am not sure 
that there was what we call a vision to the outward eye. If 
there were, why did not others see as he saw ? Was his sight 
more acute? The human eye istlie same; and the same ob- 
ject, unless it would be a miracle, would be visible to all alike. 
But did Stephen really enjoy more than some of our kindred 
— the dear saints on earth — enjoy? How near they stand to 
the spirit land ! Do they not seem to hear the whisper some- 
times that says, " Sister spirit, come away ?" Do there not 
sometimes seem to be bright forms near them, and do we 
not hear them sing, in the dying language of Bishop Mc- 
Kendree, 



430 SERMONS. 

" Bright angels are from glory come ; 
They're round my bed, they're in my room ; 
They wait to take my spirit home — 
All is well*? 

I remember the dying of a beautiful young lady, finely ed- 
ucated, a daughter of a dear friend of mine, whom I visited a 
day or two before her death. Oh, the smile that there was 
upon her brow! her eyes sparkled, and every now and then 
she bowed as though she saw loved ones around her. She 
asked her father to sing to her : 



" Oh ! sing to me of heaven 
When I am called to die." 

A young friend of mine, but the other day, in passing 
from earth, said, "I hear ringing in my ears." Her father 
told her it was the sinking of nature. She said, " They are 
ringing for me from the other shore ;" and then she added, 
"I shall see the sun rise in heaven." "When we speak of 
such scenes as attended the dying of Stephen, we may fancy 
they are only for the apostles and the servants of God high 
in his favor; but when our own friends, those who walk 
by our side and share our sorrows, go down into the vale, 
they see a light, Jesus beckons to them, and sweet voices call 
them as from the other side! How it cheers our hearts, and 
we are encouraged to trust that, when we come to tread the 
valley of the shadow of death, light shall also appear to us ! 

But do you ask, Do they really see ? I frankly confess I 
doubt it. Do they really see ? Not as we see, I fancy. You 
ask me ; What then ; is it deception ? No, not deception. I 
do not think the eyes of the dying can perceive any more 
clearly than mine. That sick sufferer on the bed I do not 
think can discern an angel more readily than I could standing 
there. That ear is no more acute than mine. What is see- 
ing? What is hearing? It is not the eye that sees; it is not 
the ear that hears, but it is the soul. The eye is the instru- 
ment, the ear is the avenue, but it is the soul that sees and 
hears. Take the soul away and there is no hearing or seeing. 
The only use of the eye is to convey the impression of light 



STEPHEN'S LIFE AND VISION. 431 

to the optic nerve ; the only use of the ear is to concentrate 
the waves of sound so that an impression may be made upon 
the auditory nerve, and the soul may perceive. May it not 
be that this impression can be made on the mind without the 
eye? If so, then the soul would see without the eye. Let an 
impression be made on the soul such as the ear would convey, 
and the soul hears without it. It is an inward voice ; and 
cannot God make the same impression on the mind that the 
sight, through the eye, would convey? If he can, then the 
soul may see the pure spirits that gather about it. It is a 
mental impression, and that, after all, is sight; it does not re- 
quire the outward, visible form to make the mental impres- 
sion. There is no need of the outward word resting on the 
ear. Let God speak to the heart, and the soul hears just as 
though the outward word were spoken. 

Let Jesus visit me and I see heaven opened ; let him unfold 
to my heart the ministrations of the blessed and they are all 
around me ; let my soul feel that my Saviour loves me and 
accompanies me, and he is with me in the hour of death, as 
vividly present as though I saw him with the outward eye. 
On earth I need the grasp of the hand of my friend to tell 
me he is there. Let Jesus make the same impression on my 
soul as though his hand were put in mine, and I were leaning 
on his Almighty arm, just as consciously have I the presence 
and the support of the Almighty arm as if my eyes saw and 
my hands felt. Weak and feeble may be my heart when I 
come down to the cold waters of death, but if he places the 
arms of his mercy about me, though there may be no out- 
ward symbol there, my soul does lean on him, and I go 
safely through. Yes, it is the Christian's privilege to-day 
to die in sight of heaven. If we live as we ought to live, 
we, too, shall see Jesus when we are dying, the mists and 
the shadows will disperse, and that which is a terror to the 
wicked will become a joy to us. I am not to die ; this body 
may fail, but the soul shall expand into the unseen ; this 
heart of mine shall embrace the Saviour whom I have loved. 
Just as the film gathers on mine eye, and the shadows of night 
come upon me, the eye of my soul shall open, the invisible 



432 SERMONS. 

shall flame in glory, and the angels shall come to bear me to 
the bosom of my Redeemer. 

We are walking on the verge of the unseen every day of 
our lives. It is not distance that separates ns from heaven ; 
it is our sins that hide God from our souls. When there is 
clear sunshine resting on the soul, we can talk to the blessed 
Saviour, and he talks back to us from heaven. How sweet 
in the closet is it, at the hour of prayer, to speak of our wants, 
with the full sight, an almost overwhelming consciousness 
that the Saviour is near us. Plow the conviction that heaven 
is far away troubles our souls ! Heaven is not far away; we 
are living on its borders. Jesus still seems to w T alk the earth 
that he trod while he lived ; he who traversed the hills and 
valleys of Judea is with us here ; and in the midst of life's 
busy scenes and most anxious cares the soul may have com- 
munion with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And 
if we could have that vision, how strong in heart we would 
grow? Our very souls, like Stephen's, would shine as the 
face of an angel. 

But the Church mourned for Stephen. It seems to me 
they said : " Who shall take the place of Stephen ? Stephen 
has gone, the only one who stood in the synagogue and dis- 
puted ; the only one of all who seemed to have wisdom that 
no man could resist. The Church must languish ; it has no 
advocate ; no man to contend with the multitude as Stephen 
did." No wonder the Church lamented over him ; and yet 
Stephen had hardly died before the eyes of Jesus were on a 
young man at whose feet the witnesses laid their garments. 
He was a persecutor; he had met Stephen, probably, in the 
synagogue and disputed with him ; he was strong, clear, acute, 
and powerful, but he was an enemy. Having seen Stephen 
die, he resolved to crush the Christians. He went forward, 
breaking into houses and taking out men and women, whom 
he put to death. Then he procured letters for Damascus, 
for as soon as the persecution began, the Christians scat- 
tered and fled as far as Damascus, Paul following and in- 
tending to kill them. No doubt the Church was dropping 
tears, saying : " What shall we do ? And yet Paul, the strong 



STEPHEN'S LIFE AND VISION. 433 

} 7 oung man, on his way to Damascus to persecute the Chris- 
tian Church, was met by Jesus. He fell to the ground ; Jesus 
spake to him; he went into Damascus, and came out thence 
preaching Jesus and him crucified. 

That was the young man who was to take Stephen's place. 
Paul went into the synagogue and disputed, proving from 
the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. The very line of 
argument by which he had sometimes been troubled, Paul 
took up and triumphantly carried forward, not in Jerusalem 
merely, where Stephen stood, but in Corinth, in Athens, 
everywhere. The office of Paul was to take up the same 
argument, and prove to the world that Jesus was the Son 
of God ; for God carries on his work through his servants' 
fall. 

Then, again, I fancy I see the burial of Stephen. It was 
dangerous to carry him to the grave. He had been killed. 
Who should dare to be known as his friends? And yet de- 
vout men came and took his body ; they dropped the tear as 
they carried him to his grave, possibly in an outcast place. 
He was punished for blasphemy ; he must have no decent 
burial according to the Jewish customs. They followed him, 
not knowing but possibly a like death was before them. 
The Church was scattered ; Jerusalem was left almost empty 
of Christians. Philip and others went preaching Jesus, and 
wherever the Christian Jews were scattered over the earth 
they went preaching Jesus. There never was a time in which 
the ministrations of the Church were more efficient than in 
the period that followed the martyrdom of Stephen. Men 
were as in the sight of heaven — a divine impulse was given 
them, and they went feeling, "If we die, Jesus cares for us; 
if we die, we shall see heaven opened." They went with 
fresh boldness and power. The persecution of the Church 
became the means of sending missionaries over the earth. 

How God overrules the wrath of man and makes it to 
praise him ! There may be hours of darkness, caused by per- 
secution, but, looking beyond the clouds, we shall see God, 
calm in the majesty of his own power, and conscious that his 
own will will be carried out. God looks at all the machina- 



434 SERMONS. 

tions of men and laughs at the movements of evil-doers. He 
is carrying out his purposes, and whether it be by storm or 
sunshine, he is moving ; whether it be in the midst of the 
wrath or the smiles of men, his cause is going forward. Was 
it not so anciently? Has it not been so in modern times? 
Just as darkness seems to settle on a nation, in a day God 
disperses the darkness. In Spain Christians were persecuted, 
the Bible forbidden, all religious assemblies frowned upon, 
the Protestant system of worship denounced; but in a mo- 
ment the foundations give way, and liberty of worship is pro- 
claimed to all human beings. His spirit is abroad in the 
earth, unseen by us, and he can use the wicked to bring about 
the triumph of his cause. 

Such are some of the lessons which we read in the story of 
Stephen. They are lessons interesting to us if we would labor 
and grow in grace. Let me urge upon you, Christian friends, 
diligence in the work of God, devotion to his Church, atten- 
tion to the poor, and care for strangers. Go and give bread 
to the hungry, give clothing to the naked, teach the little 
ones, and bring them to Jesus. In your sphere every day 
do something for him, and every day you shall have his pres- 
ence in your heart. Be not anxious when you shall die ; God 
will care for that. Do your work, and leave the future to 
Christ. Be not sorrowful or fearful at the thought of death. 
There are many Christians troubling themselves and saying, 
"Am I ready to die? 1 ' That is not the question. Are you 
ready to live? Have you Christ in you, the hope of glory? 
If Christ be in you he will take care of you. Live for him, 
and all will be well in the dying hour. Whether you die at 
home or abroad is a very little matter; whether you die in 
the midst of friends or of enemies is of small account. Live 
for Jesus and he will never forget you. If you live for the 
world, it may quit you ; if you live for wealth, it may take to 
itself wings, and you may die in poverty ; if you live for fame, 
men may turn against you ; if you live for pleasure, your ability 
to enjoy it may pass away, and your senses grow dim ; if you 
live for the mazy dance, your feet may be unable to move. 
You may love the sound of the viol, but the ear can no longer 



STEPHEN'S LIFE AND VISION. 435 

hear; if you live for the beautiful, your sense of sight may 
fail you; if you live for your children, they may be smitten 
down and leave you desolate ; or, what is far worse, they maj* 
desert yon, and leave you worse than childless in a cold and 
unfeeling world; if yon live for any joy of earth, you may 
be forsaken ; but, oh ! live for Jesus, and he will never for- 
sake you. 

Oh! when those gates of pearl, those fountains, those gold- 
en streets and trees of life, shall become visible to the eye, 
what care we for a few days of sorrow 1 " on earth ? When we 
gather there all shall be over, and then the songs of praise 
and the notes of joy that shall be uttered! Could I take 
away the veil this morning; could the invisible appear; could 
I see the forms of those that once stood beside me ! I may 
not see them now ; but, thank God, I shall see them and be 
with them forever. God grant that all in this assembly may 
live for Christ, may die for Christ, and may reign with Christ 
forever. 



XXV. 

^Dstljumotts Mmntt 



POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE. 

" And by it he, being dead, yet speaketh." — Heb. xL 4. 

These words are spoken of Abel, the first of human beings 
whose lips were sealed in death ; and yet it is said of him that 
lie yet speaketh. "By it " is by faith ; for it is said in a pre- 
vious part of the verse: "By faith Abel offered unto God a 
more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained wit- 
ness that he w T as righteous, God testifying of his gifts ; and by 
it [faith] he, being dead, yet speaketh." 

Faith, as used in this passage, signifies not merely justify- 
ing faith, but embraces all subjects of knowledge beyond the 
realm of sense. We know through faith that the worlds were 
framed by the word of God. It reaches to the distant past ; 
it is the evidence of things not seen ; it reaches far into the 
future — " the substance of things hoped for." In this wide 
range faith signifies a confidence which we have in things not 
present, so that we act as in full view of the past, the coming 
future, and the unseen around us. It was through this that 
Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice, in that he looked not 
merely to the offering, but he listened to the voice of an un- 
seen God, who had commanded the offering; he looked for- 
ward to an unseen though coming Saviour, who was typified 
therein, and he joined in adoration with the unseen company 
of the hosts above, who, he knew, were lauding and magni- 
fying the great Creator. He looked not merely at the lamb 
which he sacrificed, but to Him who should come as the 
"Lamb slain from the foundation of the world ;" and, stand- 
ing by the altar, he seemed to point from it away into the fut- 
ure and to say, in the language of one who came long ages 
after him : "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the 
sin of the world." 



440 SERMONS. 

Strange is it how long a word may ring out in the world's 
hearing; how long a thought may breathe through the annals 
of time. There have been many sounds in this world — sounds 
of war that have filled the ages with lamentation ; sounds 
of strife, when nations have been arrayed against nations ; 
sounds of triumphant joy, which have issued from the victors' 
lips, and of sorrow that have gone up from orphans' hearts. 
The world has been full of strange sounds, babbling sounds — 
the voice of the orator and the voice of the statesman ; the 
voice of the poet and the voice of the historian ; and yet, in the 
midst of the voices that have been echoing through our world, 
seeming, like the waves, each to succeed the other, we listen 
still to the sound which comes from the first lips that ever were 
closed on earth, and we hear the voice of Abel yet speaking. 

And what say the words which he speaks, the thoughts 
that escape from his lips? You will observe there is not on 
record a single sentence that Abel ever spoke. The words of 
Cain are given us, but not one of Abel's is reported ; and yet 
it is said he speaks. His speech must be by action. We be- 
hold him, then, as speaking to us, first, of worship ; of what 
true worship consists. Heaven has pictured to us two scenes 
in Abel's being. In one, he stands by the altar ; a lamb is 
there ; he stands in adoration, in praise, in hope ; in the other, 
he lies in his blood, slain by a brother's hand. These are the 
two scenes which are thus photographed by Heaven's own 
light. And as he stands in the first, the idea is Christian wor- 
ship. He had doubtless learned what worship should be; for 
in the text it is said, " God testified of his gifts that they were 
righteous ;" that is, that they were in harmony with law. 
Our Saviour said, as if taking up this thought, when he was 
baptized, " Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becomethus to 
fulfil all righteousness ;" to perform God's commands. The 
testimony that Abel's gifts were righteous, intimates very 
clearly to us that they were in harmony with what had been 
commanded. And although we have not on record the com- 
mand, yet from the whole tenor of Scripture we have the 
right to presume that God had required a sacrifice to be of- 
fered whose blood should be typical of the blood of the Sav- 



POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE. 441 

ioiir, which was to be shed for the remission of sins. And 
doubtless Abel had learned this lesson from his mother. 

Think of his boyhood. The promise had been given to 
Eve that her seed should bruise the serpent's head ; and as she 
went dejected and sorrowful from Eden this hope sustained 
her. She left Eden, its gates closed upon her, its beautiful 
scenery was gone : outside, amid thorns and thistles, in sorrow 
she was to pass her life ; and yet the promise was hers that 
One should come who should open its gates, who should re- 
store the flowers, who should crush the thistles under his feet, 
who should defeat the plans of the enemy, and send joy 
through the world. When she first took in her arms her first- 
born son, probably as she gazed upon him in his innocence, 
she said, " This is the seed to bruise the serpent's head," and 
she named him Cain, for, said she, " I have gotten a man from 
the Lord." Probably she expected him to be the coming One, 
the Hero, who should be victorious ; but as he grew she saw 
in him the traits of sin, and when her second son was given 
her she named him Abel, a word said to mean vanity, or 
mourning — as when Jacob died, the lamentation was called by 
the Canaanites Abel-Mizraim, the sorrow or lamentation of 
the Egyptians. She was sad because she knew not when that 
seed should come. And yet how diligently, doubtless, did she 
educate her child. "With what interest Abel must have lis- 
tened ; and how he must have thought of that coming prom- 
ised ! She taught him that obedience was worship, that it 
was disobedience which closed the gates of Eden ; that observ- 
ance of God's word was the only mode of restoration, of hope, 
and of triumph. 

To human thought it would seem strange that a lamb must 
be sacrificed, that blood must be shed. I imagine that Cain 
reasoned thus, and said : " There is no beauty in the offering 
of blood; much more beautiful is the altar covered with fruits 
and flowers. "What is there that God has made so lovely as 
these." I have no right to suppose that Cain presented the 
kind of offering he did because he was parsimonious. I can 
conceive that his oblation was more costly than Abel's. It 
was simply in this that it was defective : it was not what 



442 SERMONS. 

God had commanded. It was substituting his own judgment 
for God's. 

There was one element in Cain's offering that was right. 
It was the sacrifice of thanksgiving; the presenting the fruits 
of the ground ; the coming with gifts to God. So far his 
offering was right, but it lacked the confession of sin, the 
trust in a Redeemer to come. Doubtless in that early age it 
was known, as well as in later ages, that without the shedding 
of blood there was no remission of sin ; and yet the human 
heart is unwilling to look out from itself to some medium of 
help; unwilling to glance away towards a mediator. Man is 
willing to bring of his substance, of his kbor, to do anything 
and everything within the compass of his own power rather 
than turn his heart to Calvary and look simply to a crucified 
Saviour. The merit of Abel's offering was in his obedience 
and his faith ; the want of faith and obedience was the defect 
in the offering of Cain. 

The two stand by the altars they have erected (I suppose at 
an annual feast, for it is said, " In the process of time ;" the 
margin renders it "the end of days." I suppose it to be 
some stated season of worship — possibly the annual ingather- 
ing). Cain, as the elder, has prepared his altar; it is gar- 
landed with wreaths, covered with fruits gathered from 
the ground, or picked from the shrubs. At the other altar 
stands Abel. He has slain the victim. The blood has flowed. 
He has dipped his finger in the blood and applied it to him- 
self, and is standing with his head cast down, thinking over 
his sins, and, as they come up before him, he hardly raises his 
eyes towards heaven. And as he stands by the altar his 
thoughts go far away. There comes a strange vision. He 
looks down the channel of time. The ages open. He sees 
a mountain, sees a cross, a victim, and his faith takes hold 
of that victim whom he beholds suffering for him, as lie 
glances first at the lamb that was slain, and then at the Lamb 
dying on Calvary. Abel, scarcely able to look upward, re- 
ceives a testimony that God accepts him. I do not know, for 
it is not recorded, how that testimony came, but Abel teaches 
us not only that acceptable worship is that offered in faith in 



POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE. 443 

a coming Kedeemer, but that acceptable worship is accompa- 
nied by some testimony of approval. 

Has it not been so in all ages? When, at the setting-up 
of the tabernacle the bars, the curtains, the furniture, were 
all arranged, did not God come down in glory and fill it 
with his presence? Did he not illuminate it with his light? 
And when the altar was erected and the lamb laid upon it, 
according to God's command, and prayer was offered, did not 
fire come down time and again from heaven and consume 
the sacrifice, attesting God's acceptance of it? There at 
Mount Carmel, when Ahab gathers, at Elijah's request, the 
prophets of Baal, four hundred and fifty men, and it was to 
be decided who was God, Baal or Jehovah, the priests of 
Baal arranged their offering. They called through the heat 
of the day until the middle of the afternoon, and there was 
no answer. Elijah gathered up the stones of an old altar, 
placed the sacrifice upon it, poured water upon it, that it 
might be evident there was no collusion, then, at the hour 
of evening prayer, asked God to prove, in the sight of the 
people, that he was the Lord. Fire came down from heaven 
and consumed the sacrifice and licked up the water all around 
the altar, while the people fell upon their faces and cried out, 
" The Lord, he is God, and Jehovah, the God of Israel, is the 
God of the universe !" 

Thus God has answered by testimonies the faith of his peo- 
ple, and has given evidence that he approves the acts of his 
worshippers. This he did sometimes by the words of the 
prophets. This he did by the dwelling of the Shekinah on 
the mercy-seat. We know not, to-day, clearly how he an- 
swered by Urim and Thummim, but the history of religion is 
that he, in some way, indicated to his worshippers that he ac- 
cepted their service. So in our Saviour's days there was the 
approval when he submitted himself to be baptized, though 
he went among the hypocritical Jews — imperious, wicked, un- 
believing men ; yet, as he submitted, the heavens opened and 
the voice came, as the dove descended, " This is my beloved 
Son, in whom I am well pleased." Then that voice was heard 
on the Mount, " This is my beloved Son ; hear ye him." And 



4:4:4: SERMONS. 

lie promised that lie who should keep his commandments 
should have the Spirit within him, that the Comforter should 
dwell with us, and in us ; and in* acceptable worship there is 
the answer. It comes not now in the clouds. The heavens 
are not opened. There descends no dove in visible form ; 
there is no voice from the heavenly world; no flashing of 
light from the Shekinah ; but there is a power sweeter, deeper, 
brighter than all — the witness in our hearts that we are born 
of God. " He that believeth on the Son of God hath the wit- 
ness in himself." God gives unto us the Spirit of his Son in 
our hearts, crying, "Abba, rather!" — the childlike tone, the 
filial confidence, the loving heart. Where man offers accept- 
able worship to God, God does answer, and there drops into 
the soul peace and love and joy in the Holy Ghost. And this 
is better than all outward signs. "It is expedient for you," 
said Jesus, "that I go away; for if I go away I will send the 
Comforter unto you " — better than Christ's presence. And 
yet have you not felt as I have? I have wished a thousand 
times that I could have come near him ; that he had laid his 
hands on my head; that he had said, " Thy sins, which are 
many, are all forgiven thee." I would give all I have for such 
a voice. I would go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem or Naz- 
areth if I could meet my Saviour and have him lay his hand 
upon me and tell me I was his. But, were I to meet him, it 
would be but a momentary meeting. I could not be with 
him always. I must be parted from him. I must return to 
my duties, and so must you. Jesus gives himself unseen, 
spiritually, to my heart. I may be at my home ; he is there. 
I may ascend the mountain ; he goes with me. I may lie in 
the dungeon ; he makes my bed easy. My limbs may be 
manacled ; he softens the fetters. My heart may almost burn 
with sorrow ; I feel the dewy influence of his tears. He 
comes, lays his arm about me, that I may feel he is the sin- 
ner's friend; and he gives me a testimony that he accepts 
me as I come and stand by faith trusting in his atoning 
blood. 

But Abel's words tell not only of true worship and its re- 
sults in the believer's heart, but he speaks to me of true man- 



POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE. 445 

hood — that it is manly to worship; that it is the noblest act 
of man. Is not gratitude for gifts manly? To receive gifts 
without the homage of the heart in return is base. The true 
man, if he receives a favor, is ready to acknowledge it; if he 
is aided, he blesses the hand that aids him. And then, wor- 
ship is manly in this, that it brings the man into higher asso- 
ciations. Labor joins him with his fellow-men. It is digni- 
fied to labor. It is worthy of man to do what he is appointed 
to do. He has the bod} 7 , and that body must be employed. 
These hands were formed to work, this frame to toil, this ma- 
terial dwelling of ours to encounter the winds and waves and 
elements — small as it is, to be victor over them all. Bat, then, 
while it is manly to labor, it is sublime to worship. Thought 
travels upward, thought travels backward, thought travels for- 
ward. The man leaves the present, the now, the surroundings 
in which he is; he feels the Godlike birth, the divine nature 
glowing within him. He tarries not on the little snot of earth 
where he stands ; in the dignity of worship he rises to em- 
brace, in thought, the throne of God; and there his mind takes 
in, as far as it may, the eternity of God, the omnipotence of 
God, the omnipresence of God, the holiness of God. He joins 
himself with God. Thought expands, the soul rises, and in 
the act of true worship we almost forget earthly things. 

I do not know, as I said, what the testimony was that Abel 
received. Some have thought that fire came down from heav- 
en and consumed his sacrifice. That may or may not have 
been. I have sometimes thought that, as Abel looked away 
to Calvary, his face glowed with celestial light from heaven ; 
and as Moses, chambered with God for forty days and nights 
upon the mountain summit, came back all radiant, so that his 
face could not be gazed upon until covered with a veil, may 
it not have been that light shone all around on the counte- 
nance of Abel. Be that as it may, in worship there is the 
lighting up of the soul, the expanding of the nature which 
God hath given us. There is the bringing of the man into 
contact with the grandest realities ; the life past and the life 
to come. And yet, strange is it, that men oftentimes fancy 
it is unmanly to worship. Worship has in it the confession 



446 SERMONS. 

of sin. If we have sinned, is it unmanly to confess? Is it 
unmanly to be true? Truth is dignified. If the heart is sad 
because of sin, is that unmanly? If I have done wrong, 
ought I not to be sad? And if the tear should drop, is the 
tear unmanly? Ah, if my heart feel as it should feel, that I 
have been ungrateful, that I have sinned, is it strange if the 
fountain of the great deep of my soul be broken up, if the 
eyes should overflow with tears ? But, whether the tear fall 
or not, it is manly to confess our sins, to trust in a Saviour, 
to come unto him who is our elder brother. 

Abel tells us it is man's duty to do right, be the conse- 
quences what they may. Why men should hate a fellow-man 
who does right seems strange, but so it is. A right deed 
shames the wrong, and a true man shames the false, and false 
men hate the right. Men hate the light as long as they walk 
in darkness. Hence the history of persecution all through the 
ages. The martyr spirits were hurried out of the world; the 
testifying men were the objects of contempt. Christ him- 
self, with all the loveliness of heaven's own glory dwelling 
within him and resting upon him, was an object of human 
hatred. " He came unto his own, and his own received him 
not." They hated him. And, said he to his disciples, "If 
they have hated me, they will hate you also." We must bear 
reproach. " All that live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer 
persecution." But though the world may rage, it is manly to 
do right; to obey God if the world be in arms, if we lose our 
position, our bread, our friends, our all. It is our duty to 
stand by God's word. Abel stood there — stood there humbly, 
faithfully. Cain was the elder brother, and was angry when 
Abel's sacrifice was accepted. God saw his anger and expos- 
tulated with him: "If thou doest well thou shalt be accept- 
ed. Sin, or a sin-offering, lies at the door. You have the 
lamb ; bring its blood and trust in the coming Saviour." But 
Cain was angry. Not there at the altar did he slay his broth- 
er, in the presence of God, but walking in the field, as though 
God saw him not, he rose up against Abel and slew him, and 
then said, as if to hide the crime, "Am I my brothers keeper?" 

Now, even that shed blood tells us it is not only manly to 



POSTHUMOUS INELUENCE. 447 

do right, but it is safe to do right. What is the life here 
compared with that above? Suppose life does close a few 
days earlier, does not the life above more than compensate us? 
Cares Abel now, fancy you, that he left earth a few days ear- 
lier than disease or accident or age would have carried him 
away? It is not so much to live long as to live well; not so 
much to spend many days as to spend the days we have 
aright; not so much to live for the fame and wealth and ap- 
plause of this world as to live for God's favor and to dwell in 
the light of his countenance ; not so much to step on earth's 
highest points as to be able to step to the heights of glory. 

And now, from the consideration of this subject, we are 
prepared to say that true success, true glory, can only be found 
in working in harmony with God's commands. God has pur- 
poses on earth; eternal wisdom has its plans. Those purposes 
will be consummated. Men may delay, but never defeat 
them. The enemy may mar, destroy, the earthly Eden, 
but he cannot soil with his footsteps the heavenly Eden. 
Man succeeds when he puts himself in harmony with God. 
Is it not so with this world of ours? As man in the material 
world succeeds just as he works in harmony with God's law, 
so in the intellectual w r orld he must follow the laws of 
thought; in the moral world he must follow the laws of mo- 
rality. As man combines himself with God's laws, follows 
out God's purposes, he has success; becomes what God calls 
him, a co-worker. God, if I may use the phrase, furnishes the 
thread, and lets man put in the filling, weave the figures, fix 
the patterns ; but he must do it in harmony with God's plans. 
Now, the man who studies what is God's will, and joins himself 
to that will, will be, first, the successful worker, and then will 
be the eternal worker. He will be the successful worker, for 
he has all the advantages of God's power; and if I can work 
with God my work will seem to have the elements of omnipo- 
tence. Yonder moon raises the tides of the sea ; but there is 
this observable, that when the moon draws in the same line 
with the sun, whether at new or full moon, the tide is always 
higher than when it draws at right angles with the sun. The 
combination of forces in the same line gives a much higher 



44:8 SERMONS. 

result. And so man, co-operating with God, raises his strength, 
and the tidal wave rushes over the lands around him. 

Then, as I have said, he is the eternal worker, for God's 
work is eternal. God never works only for to-day. His plans 
run on and on. The web he weaves is from everlasting to 
everlasting, and if I can fill in a part of that web, be it ever 
so insignificant, it will abide forever. And this is one of 
the most comforting thoughts to us. While on earth we 
may do something for eternity. Abel thought very little 
of what he was doing. He had no idea of the mass of hu- 
manity that should come ; of the great triumphs to be wrought 
in this world. He stood simply in God's ways; and yet he 
lives; his name is known in every language; it is uttered by 
the lips of every child where the name of Christ is known ; 
and when this world shall be filled with its multitudes of 
millions of human beings, when Christ shall reign supreme, 
there is not a land, there is not a language, there is not a 
tongue, that shall not pronounce the name of Abel. He joined 
himself with God's plans, and, though the ages have passed, 
his name is not lost. 

Is that strange? God has so arranged the universe that 
there is no force, no matter, ever lost. It changes form ; it 
never vanishes wholly. It may vanish from our sight, we 
may consume the wood, but the flame, the vaporized gas, the 
ashes, are there; they have all the elements of the wood; 
they remain. Water may be evaporated ; unseen it goes off, 
but it gathers in clouds, comes down to earth, forms the river, 
runs to the sea, and returns mysteriously back again to the 
clouds, drawn up to form a perpetual motion. Man can- 
not make perpetual motion ; God does. He lifts the ocean 
in the little interstices of air, then combines it with the 
clouds, and then sends it back again. And if matter cannot 
be lost, shall thought be lost? thought, far more valuable; 
thought, that gives man his supremacy; ideas, that govern 
the world, that mould nations, that form kingdoms, that over- 
throw empires, that burst manacles, that change savages into 
civilized beings, and civilized beings into saints — can such 
ideas be lost ? can thought perish ? 



POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE. 449 

Ah, the thought that leaps out of the bosom of any being, 
the new thought, the grand thought, has, like its origin, im- 
mortality. It comes as from the breath of God, and it is to 
go on with its power permeating the universe, and will live. 
You may kill the human form — you cannot crush human 
thought. You may chain the body — you cannot chain the 
mind. No thought of purity, or virtue, or truth, that God 
gives us to set afloat in this world, can ever perish. And so 
of the words we speak: we may utter them and they are 
gone. We may never think of them again ; but this universe 
is a vast atmosphere of waves, and they run on and on and 
on, and stop and knock at the door, the ear, leaving the hu- 
man heart to take it in, and on again and on ; and if there be 
a thought worthy to be reiterated, another voice takes it and 
sends it on. And it is thus that what is vile, drops as into the 
ocean to be buried out of sight, and yet not lost; for the vile 
has made a stain that, save by the blood of Christ, can never 
be washed away; bat the pure and the true lives on until its 
consummation finds its home with the purified in heaven. 

Now, this is the eternity of working. We work on with 
our thought, and the thought cannot die. Do we not see it 
so in this world % The living things are in union with the 
broad, the grand thoughts. Men may build up selfishly ; what 
they build has no immortality. A man may rear for himself 
a costly home and inhabit it ; he may be dressed, as the man 
in the parable, in fine linen, and fare sumptuously every 
day, and his friends may gather to him, but his house does 
not remain his abode, his raiment is gone, and at his table an- 
other sits, and there is desolation at his hearth ; there is no 
life in his castle or his revenue. Where did the kings of the 
world live? Where are their abodes? Go hunt for their 
palaces, and they are gone, stone mouldering upon stone — all 
have been gnawed and crumbled by time. Build up enter- 
prises for even social monuments, merely, and how little 
fame is connected with them. The columns of ruined Thebes 
tell of great architects. Their names have perished. The 
buildings have perished, save the slight remains that speak of 
their former grandeur. Go climb the pyramids, and as you 

29 



450 SERMONS. 

ascend the steps and look over that deserted plain, ask who 
were the builders, and there is no answer. Covered with 
dust, in some musty repository of the dead, you may read a 
name ; you may rescue it from oblivion. Whose name was it ? 
What did he do ? What was his likeness ? His thoughts are 
perished and his memorial with them, although the frame- 
work may seem yet to live. Look at the builders of cities — 
Palmyra, Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar said, "Is not this great 
Babylon that I have built?" Its mighty walls, hanging gar- 
dens, adornments, palaces — they are gone, so that the site is 
to tins day a matter of dispute. But work for mankind, and 
as yon rise your work attains magnificence. 

In the records of our race the hero has a higher name than 
the epicure, the voluptuary, the sensualist. He lived for his 
country, and that fact gave him dignity, and his name is iden- 
tified with the history of his nation. Look over the uncivil- 
ized tribes of the earth. You know nothing of the men con- 
nected with them. But as you read of Rome and Greece, and 
even Carthage, as she came in connection with Rome, you 
have the names of their heroes; you have connected them 
with many greater than themselves, and their names live. 
Now, let a man connect himself with what is broader than 
a nation ; let him connect himself with God, and is it unrea- 
sonable that he should have an immortality even of fame? 
The old temples are gone. The remains of the Parthenon 
tell something of the grandeur of that temple of Minerva, but 
no hearts gather about it. The antiquary may wish to look 
at its columns. He may ascend the Acropolis and imagine 
how this Parthenon, as he reconstructs it in fancy, may have 
appeared in its splendor ; but the temple of God, which stood 
on Moriah, every Christian heart yearns for it ; every eye 
turns towards it. Phoenicia comparatively few care for, except 
parts of it connected with the Holy Land ; but Palestine, with 
its sacred associations, who does not wish to visit ? How many 
travellers from all parts of the earth are going thither, because 
the feet of Jesus trod that soil ; because on that mountain- 
side the words were uttered which run on and on, and will run 
on and on, until our globe's history is consummated. 



POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE. 451 

And then see their wise men any age after Christ — poets 
who sang, philosophers who reasoned, statesmen who planned, 
architects who built, artists who painted. Where is their 
work? Where are their writings? Of the productions of 
many scarcely a page remains. But Paul wrote, and Paul's 
writings remain ; his words were of Jesus and the Church, and 
as he connected himself with these great themes the words 
live on. Paul was a student of Gamaliel. Where are Gama- 
liel's words? And if Paul had taken Gamaliel's seat — if lie 
had been chief of the Sanhedrim, had been looked up to by 
every one throughout Palestine, and had written, his writings 
would have perished too ; but he wrote of Jesus, and his writ- 
ings live. Peter might have gathered fish on the sea of Gali- 
lee; he might have amassed wealth; a bold man, he might 
have been a leader; he might have delivered stirring orations, 
and inspired his people to deeds of noble daring, but his words 
would have been unknown in the ages. Pie wrote to sundry 
strangers scattered throughout Pontus and Bithynia, and ev- 
ery word remains. John might have been considered amia- 
ble, kind, even brilliant, possibly, but it was because he laid 
his head on Jesus's bosom that we see in him loveliness. It 
was because he wrote visions of Jesus that the visions have 
not faded away. There, on Patmos, he might have died as 
an exile had he not been in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and, 
looking up, seen Jesus as he walked among the candlesticks and 
held the stars in his right hand. John connected himself with 
Christ, and he lives on and he lives forever. We know not 
what man may do. Amazing privilege, to associate ourselves 
with God. If we get into the position where these worthies 
stood we shall live. Our work shall stand for all the ages to 
come. This is the privilege that we enjoy, being dead we 
shall speak. 

We may connect ourselves with God's work by building 
houses for God. The house may not stand forever, but the 
results of it shall live forever. The souls converted in it shall 
shine forever in the Saviour's image. The songs sung shall 
echo forever in praise. Souls purified here shall in heaven 
tell the place where they were born. And in writing the his- 



452 SERMONS. 

tor j of the Christian Church it shall be said, That man, and 
that man, was born there. And where the house is built for 
God's glory, or the work is done in his name, it attaches itself 
forever to his cause. As I said in the beginning, has it not 
seemed strange to you that not a word of Abel was put on 
record ? What a lesson ! We cannot catch an accent, and yet 
he is speaking. It is the eloquence of life, mightier than 
the eloquence of language. The eloquence of deeds is that 
which remains. The building of the altar, the offering of 
the lamb, the erection of the church, the founding of the 
seminary, the rearing of the university, the winning of a 
soul for Christ — these are actions that shall never die. On, 
on, the effect of the good deed goes, linked into an endless 
chain which joins eternity past to eternity to come. The lit- 
tle boy trained in a cabin by his precious mother may have 
a voice that shall ring over the mountains of India or the 
plains of China. The thought uttered to-day at one end of 
the world reaches to the other to-morrow. God is showing 
us the power of connected thought to-day, and action in this: 
that, in our age, if there be a mighty action, it is known in a 
few hours all over the globe, and it seems to wake a kindred 
impulse everywhere. The thoughts of the noble men of the 
earth, and their deeds, are acting all over the globe. It is the 
deed that is eloquent, though not a word be uttered ; and there 
are men of deeds whose actions far outweigh the eloquence 
of the platform or the bar. 

So is the glory that results. True glory comes from serv- 
ing God. Abel fell, aud to human eye his life was ended ; 
and it might have been said, Death would not have come to 
him as it did if he had been less strict, less uncompromising. 
Might he not, in some degree, have conformed to Cain's de- 
sire, so that there should have been no enmity, no passion ? 
And yet, think of the glory Abel enjoyed — enjoys still. Abel 
had the glory of being the first martyr to the truth ; the first 
that fell in death — a glory that never shall, in that respect, 
be equalled. There were angels in heaven before, and arch- 
angels. Seraph and cherub were there. There was the song 
of creative praise in heaven before ; there never was a human 



POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE. 453 

soul. I do not know when the last addition will be made to 
heaven's intellectual forces. I know not when archangels and 
angels and seraph and cherub received their birth. I know 
not whether for ages there had been one addition to heaven's 
choir. There had been angels who lost their place, whose 
thrones were vacant because they disobeyed ; I know of no 
fresh gathering into the realm of glory until Abel led the 
way. 

And then, too, Abel's advent to heaven marked a new era 
in the universe. It was not merely the ascent of a human 
soul : it was a striking of the note of the new sons:. The an- 
gel's voices had been singing creation's praise from creation's 
morn. The morning stars sang together, and the sons of God 
shouted for joy. But when this spirit rose from earth, when 
Abel ascended, it was not of creation he sang. He struck a 
new note, and as he sang, it was, " Unto him that loved me 
and washed me from my sins in his own blood, and made me 
a king and a priest unto God, unto him be glory and power 
and dominion for ever and ever." But the ages rolled on and 
others came. The choir has been increasing all the time; the 
songs have been sounding. The glory fills heaven. 'Tis more 
than heaven can contain ; for the angels that had listened to 
that song for the hundreds of years were so charmed by it 
that when heaven's doors were opened they came down to try 
to sing some of the same notes in shepherd's ears, and said, 
" Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good will to 
men." Abel had told of a Saviour. The angels came to sing 
him born. 

That song is growing! Heaven is happier every day. 
There is now more music, more power, more joy in heaven 
than there has ever been before. I love music. I love the 
tones that thrill the soul, though God has given me but little 
power to sing. I delight in the music of earth ; I think I 
shall delight far more in the music of heaven. And I some- 
times fancy that, though I cannot sing much here, I shall sing 
there ; at least I shall try to strike the note that has been run- 
ning through heaven so long; and when it comes to the word 
"me," I shall try to say it, "loved me, loved me, and washed 



454 SERMONS. 

me in Lis own blood, and made me a king and a priest unto 
God ; unto him be glory for ever and ever." 

And shall not every tongue be vocal, every hand hold its 
harp % Are there any of my audience who shall not be there ? 
God forbid that there should be one in this assembly who will 
not look to Jesus ; who will not join in true worship ; who 
will not humble himself and confess his sins ! May we to-day, 
standing where we do, join with Abel in looking at the bless- 
ed Saviour. He looked at a Saviour to come, we at a Saviour 
who has come. And let us, to-day, in the strength of grace, 
resolve to do something that shall live after us. The circum- 
stances of the hour suggest that lesson to us. I would have 
less of life if God gave me the choice, less of joy, less of 
wealth, less of fame, less of ease ; if necessary, let every friend 
I have on earth forsake me, my name be cast out as evil, let 
me lie at the rich man's gate with no companion save the brute 
to watch me in my dying moments, if that shall give me a bet- 
ter convoy of angels, if that shall give me a sweeter voice, if 
that shall help me to do something which shall live through 
eternity. But God knows what is necessary for us. It may 
not be needful I should suffer, or that you should suffer; but 
it is needful that we should work, that we should plan, that 
we should consecrate. And here, to-day, let us offer heart, 
spirit, time, means, all we are and all we have, unto " him 
who washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made 
us kings and priests unto God." 



THE EOT3. 



IMPORTANT BOOKS 

FOR 

CLERBYMEN AND THEOLOGICAL STUDENTS, 

Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. 



t3T* HAitVKn & Brothers will send their publications by mail, postage iirepaid, to any 
address in the United States or Canada, on receipt of the price. Harper's Catalochje mailed 
on receipt of Ten Cents. 



Abbott's Dictionary of Religious Knowledge. 

For Popular and Professional use : comprising full Information on Bibli- 
cal, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Subjects. With nearly 1000 Maps 
and Illustrations. Edited by the Rev. Lyman Abbott, Assisted by the 
Rev. T. J. Conant, D.D. Royal 8vo, 1074 pages, Cloth, $6 00; Half 
Morocco, $8 50. 

Abbott's Life of Christ. 

Jesus of Nazareth; his Life and Teachings. By the Rev. Lyman Ab- 
bott, D.D. Illustrated. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $1 75. 

Abbott's The Young Christian. 

By Jacob Abbott. A Memorial Volume. With a Sketch of the Author 
by one of his Sons. With a Steel -plate Portrait of the Author, and 
Woodcuts. 12ino, Cloth, $2 00. 

Alford's Greek Text of the Four Gospels, 

The Four Gospels : with a Critically Revised Text ; a Digest of Various 
Readings; Marginal References to Verbal and Idiomatic Usage; Prole- 
gomena; and a Critical and Exegetical Commentary. By Henry Al- 
ford, D.D. 944 pages, 8vo, Cloth, $4 20; Half Morocco, $5 95. 

Arthur's Physical and Moral Law. 

The Difference between Physical and Moral Law. By Rev. Wm. Ar- 
thur, D.D. 12mo, Cloth, $1 00. 



Arthurs Tongue of Fire. 



The Tongue of Fire ; or, The True Power of Christianity. By Rev. 
Wm. Arthur, D.D. Portrait. 12mo, Cloth, 60 cents; Paper, 40 cents. 

Bacon's Genesis of the New England Churches. 

By the Rev. Leonard Bacon, D.D. Illustrated. Crown, 8vo, Cloth, 

$2 50. 



2 Important Books for Clergymen and Theological Students. 

Barnes's Evidences of Christianity, 

Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity in the Nineteenth Century. 
Delivered in the Mercer Street Church, New York, 1867. On the "Ely 
Foundation " of the Union Theological Seminary. By Albert Barnes. 
12mo, Cloth, $1 75. 

Barnes's Notes. 

Notes on the New Testament and the Psalms. By Albert Barnes. 
Maps and Illustrations. 14 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $1 50 per volume. The 
volumes sold separately. 

On the Four Gospels. 2 vols. 

On the Acts of the Apostles. 

On the Epistle to the Romans. 

On the First Epistle to the Corinthians. 

On the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, and the Epistle 

to the galatians. 
On the Epistles to the Ephesians, the Colossians, and the 

Philippians. 
On the Epistles to the Thessalonl\ns, Timothy, Titus, and 

Philemon. 
On the Epistle to the Hebrews. 

On the General Epistles op James, Peter, John, and Jude. 
On the Revelation. 
On the Psalms. 3 vols. 

Bartlett's from Egypt to Palestine, 

From Egypt to Palestine, through Sinai, the Wilderness, and the South 
Country. Observations of a Journey made with Special Reference to the 
History of the Israelites. By S. C. Bartlett, D.D., LL.D. Illustrated. 
8vo, Cloth, $3 50. 

Beecher's Autobiography. 

Autobiography, Correspondence, &c, of Lyman Beecher, D.D. Edited 
by his Son, Charles Beecher. Steel Portraits. 2 vols., 12mo, Cloth, 
$5 00; Half Calf, $8 50. 

Bccclicr's Morning and Evening Exercises. 

Devotional Exercises. Selected from the Writings of the Rev. Henry 
Ward Beecher. Edited by Lyman Abbott. New Edition. Cloth, 
$3 00. 

Bushnell's Life and Letters. 

Life and Letters of Horace Bushnell. With Two Portraits. 8vo, Cloth, 
$3 00. 



Butler's Analogy. 



Bishop Butler's Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Con- 
stitution and Course of Nature, with an Analysis, left unfinished, by the 
late Robert Emory, D.D. Completed and Edited, with Life of Bishop 
Butler, Notes and Index, by Rev. G. R. Crooks, D.D. 12mo, Cloth, 
$1 00. 



Important Boohs for Clergymen and Theological Students. 3 

Cairns's Unbelief in the 18th Century. 

Unbelief in the 18th Century as Contrasted with its Earlier and Later His- 
tory ; being the Cunningham Lectures for 1880. By John Cairns, D.D. 
12mo, Cloth, 60 cents; 4to, Paper, 20 cents. 

Cocker's Theistic Conception of the World, 

An Essay in Opposition to Certain Tendencies of Modern Thought. By 
B. F. Cocker, D.D., LL.D. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $2 50. 

Cocker's Christianity and Greek Philosophy; 

Or, The Relation between Spontaneous and Reflective Thought in Greece, 
and the Positive Teaching of Christ and his Apostles. By B. F. Cocker, 
D.D., LL.D. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $2 75. 

Dextcr's Congregationalism, 

The Congregationalism of the Last Three Hundred Years, as seen in its 
Literature: with Special Reference to certain Recondite, Neglected, or 
Disputed Passages. With a Bibliographical Appendix. By Henry Mar- 
ttn Dexter. Large 8vo, 1082 pages, Cloth, $6 00. 

Douglass Scries of Christian Greek and Latin Writers: 

12mo, Cloth, $1 30 per volume. 

Latin Hymns. With English Notes. By F. A. March, LL.D. 
Eusebius. The First Book and Selections. By F. A. March, LL.D. 
Tertullian's Select Works. Edited by F. A. March, LL.D. 
Athenagoras. Edited by F. A. March, LL.D. 
The Apologies op Justin Martyr. With an Introduction and 
Notes. By B. L. Gildersleeve, Ph.D. (Gott,), LL.D. 

Dwight's Theology. 

Theology Explained and Defended, in a Series of Sermons. By Timothy 
Dwight, S.T.D., LL.D. With a Memoir of the Author. Portrait. 4 
vols., 8vo, Cloth, $8 00; Sheep, $10 00. 



Gieseler's Ecclesiastical History, 



A Text-Book of Church History. By Dr. John C. L. Gieseler. Trans- 
lated by Samuel Davidson, LL.D., and Rev. John W. Hull, M.A. 
New Edition. Edited by Rev. Henry B. Smith, D.D. 8vo, Cloth. 
Vols. I., II., III., and IV., $2 25 each. Vol. V., $3 00. 

Greek New Testament Concordance, 

The Englishman's Greek Concordance of the New Testament : being an 
Attempt at a Verbal Connection between the Greek and the English Texts ; 
including a Concordance to the Proper Names, with Indexes, Greek-Eng- 
lish and English-Greek, 8vo, Cloth, $3 50; Sheep, $3 87; Half Calf, $5 25. 



Hervey's Christian Rhetoric, 



A System of Christian Rhetoric, for the Use of Preachers and Other 
Speakers. By George Winfred Hervey. 8vo, Cloth, $3 50. 



4 Important Books for Clergymen and Theological Students, 

Hurst's Short Historv of the Reformation, 

A Short History of the Reformation. With Maps and Woodcuts. By 
John F. Hurst, D.D. 16mo, Flexible Cloth, 40 cents. 

M'Clintock & Strong's Cyclopaedia. 

A Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature. By 
the late Rev. John M'Clintock, D.D., and James Strong, S.T.D. With 
Maps and numerous Illustrations. Ten Volumes and one Supplementary 
Yolume. 8vo. Price per Volume, Cloth, $5 00; Sheep, $6 00*) Half Mo- 
rocco, $8 00. (Sold by Subscription only.) 

ilman's History of Christianity, 

From the Birth of Christ to the Abolition of Paganism in the Roman Em- 
pire. By Rev. H. H. Milman. 8vo, Cloth, $2 00. 

Mosheiin's Ecclesiastical History. 

Ancient and Modern Ecclesiastical History, in which the Rise and Varia- 
tion of Church Power are Considered in their Connection with the State 
of Learning, Philosophy, and Political History of Europe. Translated, 
with Notes, etc, by A. Maclaine, D.D. Continued to 1826 by C. Coote, 
LL.D. 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $4 00; Sheep, $5 00. 

Neat's History of the Puritans, 

Or Protestant Non-conformists; from the Reformation in 1518 to the 
Revolution in 1688. By Daniel Neal, M.A. With Notes by J. O. 
Choules, D.D. 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $4 00; Sheep, $5 00. 

Newman's "From Dan to Bcersheba ;" 

Or, The Land of Promise as it Now Appears. By the Rev. J. P. New- 
man, D.D. Maps and Engravings. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. 

Nordhoff's God and the Future Life: 

The Reasonableness of Christianity. Natural Theology for Youth. By 
Charles Nordhoff. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00. 

Prime's Tent-Life in the Holy Land, 

By William C. Prime. Illustrated, 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. 

Revision of the English Version of the New Testament, 

With an Introduction by the Rev. Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D. 618 

pages, Crown 8vo, Cloth, $3 00. 

Revised Greek-English New Testament. 

Westcott & Hort's Text of the New Testament in the Original Greek, 
and the Revised English Version of the New Testament printed on op- 
posite pages. With Dr. Philip Schaff 's Introduction to Westcott & Hort's 
Greek New Testament. Crown 8vo, Half Leather, $3 50. 



Important Books for Clergymen and Theological Students. 5 

Revised Version of the New Testament. 

Harper's American Editions : Brevier, 16mo, Cloth, 45 cents; Leather. 
Gilt Edges, 90 cents; 12mo, Cloth, 60 cents. Pica, 8vo, Red Edges, $2 00; 
Divinity Circuit, Full Morocco, $9 00. 

Revised Version of the Old Testament. 

In Four Volumes. Pica, 8vo, Cloth. Eed Edges. Uniform in Size and 
Typography with Harper's American Pica Edition of the "Revised Ver- 
sion of the New Testament." {Nearly Ready.) 

Robinson's Greek and English Lexicon of the New Tes- 
tament, 

By Edward Robinson, D.D., LL.D. 8vo, Cloth, $4 00; Sheep, $4 37. 

Robertson's Life and Works : 

Life, Letters, Lectures on Corinthians. Large 12mo, Cloth, 

$2 00; Half Calf, $3 75. 
Sermons Preached at Brighton. Large 12mo, Cloth, $2 00; Half 

Calf, $3 75. 
"The Human Race," and other Sermons. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50; Half 

Calf, $3 25. 

SchafFs Companion to the Greek Testament and the 
English Version, 

By Philip Schaff, D.D., President of the American Committee on Re- 
vision. With Fac-simile Illustrations of MSS. and Standard Editions of 
the New Testament. Post 8vo, Cloth, $2 75. 



SchafFs Creeds of Christendom. 



With a History and Critical Notes. By the Rev. Philip Schaff, D.D., 
LL.D. Fourth Edition. Three Volumes. Vol. I. The History of Creeds. 
Vol. II. The Greek and Latin Creeds, with Translations. Vol. III. The 
Evangelical Protestant Creeds, with Translations. 8vo, Cloth, $15 00. 



Southcy's Life of John Wesley, 



And Rise and Progress of Methodism. By Robert Southey. With 
Notes by S. T. Coleridge, and Remarks by Alexander Knox. Sec- 
ond American Edition. 2 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $2 50. 



Taylor's (W. M.) Works. 



Works by the Rev. William M. Taylor, D.D., Pastor of the Broadway 
Tabernacle, New York. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50 per volume. 

David, King of Israel. 

Elijah the Prophet. 

Peter the Apostle. 

Daniel the Beloved. 

Moses the Law-Giver. 

Paul the Missionary. Illustrated. 



G Important Books for Clergymen and Theological Students. 

Thomson's The Land and the Book: 

Vol. I. Central Palestine and Phoenicia, 

By William M. Thomson, D.D. Forty-five Years a Missionary in 
Syria and Palestine. 130 Illustrations and Maps. Square 8vo, Cloth, 
$6 00; Sheep, $7 00; Half Morocco, $8 50; Full Morocco, Gilt Edges, 
$10 00. 

Yol, II, Southern Palestine and Jerusalem, 

By William M. Thomson, D.D. 140 Illustrations and Maps. Square 
8vo, Cloth, $6 00; Sheep, $7 00; Half Morocco, $8 50; Full Moroc- 
co, Gilt Edges, $10 00. 

Thomson's Great Argument. 

The Great Argument; or, Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. By W. H. 
Thomson, M.A., M.D., Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, 
Medical Department University of New York. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $2 00. 



TV 



Tristram's Land of Moab : 



Travels and Discoveries on the East Side of the Dead Sea and the Jor- 
dan. By H. B. Tristram, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S. Map and Illustra- 
tions. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $2 50. 

Tycrnian's Oxford Methodists. 

Memoirs of the Rev. Messrs. Clayton, Ingham, Gambold, Hervey, and 
Boughton, with Biographical Notices of others. By Rev. Luke Tyer- 
man. With Portraits. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $2 50. 

Tycrman's Life and Times of John Wesley, 

Founder of the Methodists. By Rev. Luke Tyerman. Three Steel Por- 
traits. 3 vols., Crown 8vo, Cloth, $7 50. 



VaikLcnnep's Bible Lands: 



7 



Their Modern Customs and Manners Illustrative of Scripture. By Rev. 
Henry J. Van-Lennep, D.D. Maps and Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, 
$5 00; Sheep, $6 00; Half Calf, $8 00. 

Wcstcott & Hart's Greek New Testament. 

The New Testament in the Original Greek. The Text Revised by 
Brooke Foss Westcott, DD., and F. J. A. Hort, D.D. American 
Edition. With an Introduction by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D., Presi- 
dent of the American Bible Revision Committee. Vol. I. Crown 8vo, 
Cloth, $2 00. Vol. II. Containing Introduction and Appendix by the 
Editors. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $2 00. 

Willson's Mosaics of Bible History. 

The Bible Record, with numerous Poetic and Prose Selections from 
Standard Literature. By Marcius Willsost and Robert Pierpont 
Willson. 2 vols., 12rao, Cloth, $3 00. 



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